Jay Chaudhry, founder and CEO of cloud‑security firm Zscaler, has emerged as one of the richest immigrants in America, with a net worth estimated at over $12 billion. His remarkable journey from a remote Himalayan village in Himachal Pradesh to Silicon Valley highlights a story of grit, ambition, and entrepreneurial vision.

Born in 1958 to a family of small‑scale farmers, Chaudhry grew up in Panoh—a village that had no electricity or running water until his teenage years. He famously walked four kilometres daily to attend school, often studying under a tree after sundown. Despite these early challenges, the determined student earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics from IIT‑BHU and later obtained master’s degrees from the University of Cincinnati, along with executive education from Harvard Business School.

Chaudhry’s career began in engineering and management roles at companies like IBM, Unisys, and NCR, but his entrepreneurial spirit led him to launch SecureIT in 1996 alongside his wife, Jyoti, using their life savings. The company secured firewall deployments in half of the Fortune 500 within 18 months and was acquired by VeriSign for about $70 million in 1998. He followed this success with several security startups—AirDefense, CipherTrust, and CoreHarbor—all of which culminated in successful exits to larger firms.

In 2007, Chaudhry founded Zscaler, aiming to build a cloud-native security platform. The company went public in 2018 and has since grown rapidly, recording over $1.6 billion in annual revenue with a market valuation exceeding $30 billion. This surge elevated Chaudhry into Forbes’ ranks of the wealthiest U.S. citizens, with his wealth now estimated between $12 billion and $13 billion.

Despite staggering success, Chaudhry remains committed to giving back. He regularly donates to causes in India—from funding mobile medical labs in his hometown to supporting his alma mater, IIT‑BHU, and contributing to eye-care and education initiatives.

Chaudhry’s ascent embodies the transformative possibilities of the American Dream: a self-made immigrant who leveraged education, tenacity, and innovation to create global impact. As he tops charts among immigrant entrepreneurs, his story serves as a powerful testament to what determination and vision can achieve.