India has become the top contributor to the United States' community of immigrant billionaires, with 12 Indian-origin business leaders finding a spot in the elite list of richest immigrant billionaires in America. This supports India's increasing power in the world of technology and business, especially in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street.
The highlight among the 12 top-performing individuals is Jay Chaudhary, the founder and CEO of cybersecurity company Zscaler. With a personal wealth of over US$7.8 billion, Chaudhary not only topped the list of Indian-origin billionaires.
Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella were beaten in terms of individual wealth. Unlike Pichai and Nadella, who have made their wealth in the top executive positions, Chaudhary is a self-made businessman who went to the top through the startup path.
Among Indian-origin billionaires on the list are tech investors and entrepreneurs such as Vinod Khosla, Romesh Wadhwani, and Niraj Shah. These individuals also show the prominence of Indian-Americans within the U.S. tech and venture capital sector.
The achievement of Indian-origin billionaires is also symptomatic of a larger trend — the powerful presence of immigrants in the US economy. Of all 92 immigrant billionaires in the US, Indians constitute the single largest national group.
According to Forbes, they owe their success to a combination of entrepreneurial spirit, solid STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education, and the ability to work around and thrive within the hyper-competitive US business environment.
India's dominance in this sector also reflects the country's rich pool of talent and the free mobility of its professionals in the world. Most of these billionaires were students or first-generation professionals in the U.S. who subsequently established successful businesses.
With rising venture capital activity and greater Indian-origin founders at the helm of unicorns and startups, the list will keep expanding in the years ahead. The tale of Jay Chaudhary and his contemporaries is a strong testament to the contribution of the global Indian diaspora towards shaping America's future of innovation and wealth generation.