India now ranks No. 1 in supplying billionaire immigrants to the US, according to Forbes’ 2025 list of America’s Richest Immigrants. With 12 India-born citizens on the list, the country has overtaken Israel as the leading source of billionaire migrants in the US this year.Forbes’ list of 125 foreign-born billionaires spans 43 countries, but Indian-origin names dominate the leaderboard. Among the list are global tech giants Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and Nikesh Arora, according to an ET report. But it’s cybersecurity titan Jay Chaudhry who leads the Indian pack in both wealth and narrative.Chaudhry’s story is as dramatic as it is inspiring. Born in a Himalayan village where electricity and running water arrived only when he was in Class 8 and 10 respectively, he boarded his first-ever flight in 1980 to pursue graduate studies in the US. Now 65, he heads Zscaler, the Nasdaq-listed firm he founded in 2008. Forbes pegs his wealth at $17.9 billion.“I had never been on a plane before I flew from India to attend grad school at the University of Cincinnati in 1980,” Chaudhry told Forbes according to the ET report. He and his family still hold about 40% of Zscaler, which went public in 2018. Before Zscaler, he launched and sold four other cybersecurity startups—including SecureIT, the firm he co-founded with wife Jyoti in 1996 using their life savings after both quit their jobs.Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft boss Satya Nadella—two of the world’s most visible tech leaders—entered the list this year with fortunes of $1.1 billion each. Former SoftBank executive and current Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora is also a new entrant, worth an estimated $1.4 billion.Who made the list: The 12 Indian-origin billionaires
- Jay Chaudhry – $17.9B – Security software
- Vinod Khosla – $9.2B – Sun Microsystems, venture capital
- Rakesh Gangwal – $6.6B – Airlines
- Romesh T. Wadhwani – $5.0B – Software
- Rajiv Jain – $4.8B – Finance
- Kavitark Ram Shriram – $3.0B – Google, venture capital
- Raj Sardana – $2.0B – Technology services
- David Paul – $1.5B – Medical devices
- Nikesh Arora – $1.4B – Cybersecurity
- Sundar Pichai – $1.1B – Alphabet
- Satya Nadella – $1.1B – Microsoft
- Neerja Sethi – $1.0B – IT consulting
US billionaire immigration: Top 3 and global shiftsThe top immigrant billionaire in the US remains Elon Musk, with a staggering $393.1 billion. Born in South Africa, Musk came to the US via Canada as a student. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, a Russian émigré, is No. 2 at $139.7 billion. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, born in Taiwan and sent to the US from Thailand at age 9 to escape political turmoil, ranks third with $137.9 billion.Taiwan also registered a strong showing this year with 11 billionaire immigrants—up from just four in 2022—tying with Israel for second place. That jump gives Taiwan the fastest growth among billionaire immigrant nationalities.Forbes notes that while more than a quarter of American billionaires inherited their wealth, a whopping 93% of immigrant billionaires are self-made. The top sectors for wealth creation? Technology (53 individuals) and finance (28).
