Indian genius studying at Stanford University IIT, becoming the youngest CEO of the S&P 500 Finger with a salary of Rs 100 crore, was fired after Elon Musk…
Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and IIT Bombay alumni now lead an AI startup after Elon Musk took over.
The rise and fall of Indian technicians after Elon Musk's $44 billion action
Mumbai IIT graduate Parag Agrawal is a famous Indian name in the global technology community. He received a lot of attention when he became CEO of Twitter (now known as X), which was a rare and proud moment for many Indians. However, he served as CEO for a short time as billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 on a $44 billion contract. Despite this, Agrawal's journey is still encouraging.
Parag was born in Ajmer, Rajasthan. His father served as a senior official at the Ministry of Atomic Energy in India, while his mother was a professor of economics. Agrawal’s academic journey is excellent, he won 77 in all India on the IIT entrance exam and graduated from IIT Mumbai in 2005.
Prior to joining Twitter in 2011, Agrawal worked as an intern at Microsoft Research and Yahoo. On Twitter, he quickly climbed the company ladder. In 2017, he was appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO), where he played a major role in improving the company’s technology strategy, especially in artificial intelligence. In 2021, he was promoted to CEO and became the youngest person to lead a company on the S&P 500 roster, a major achievement.
He served as CEO with a salary package of over Rs 1,000 crore, which includes restricted stock units worth approximately Rs 94 crore. But things changed when Elon Musk took over the company and Agrawal was evacuated from his position.
Even after leaving Twitter, Agrawal did not disappear. Instead, he entered the world of artificial intelligence and started working in his own startup. His new company focuses on building software that supports large language models, a technology similar to ChatGpt. His AI adventure has attracted big investments from leading companies such as Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures and First Round Capital, which shows that the technology community still believes in his vision.
Agrawal’s story proves the hard work, talent and the right opportunity to take someone from Ajmer to Silicon Valley and beyond.
