Meet Sanjay Mehrotra, who went from visa rejections to become CEO of trillion-dollar tech giant Micron

Sanjay Mehrotra, the chief executive of Micron Technology, has emerged as one of the most influential Indian-origin leaders in global technology today. As a teenager, the Kanpur native was denied a US student visa three times. As CEO, he has overseen rapid growth at the chipmaker, spearheading it to a market valuation of more than $1 trillion amid the AI boom on Wall Street.

The achievement places Micron alongside other Indian-born CEOs of American tech giants, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Google parent Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai.

A journey that began with rejection


Mehrotra was an engineering student at BITS Pilani in 1976 when his student visa application was rejected by the US embassy in New Delhi for the third time, according to a report in The Times of India.

His father refused to give up. After waiting for a consular officer to return from lunch, he personally asked why his son’s visa was being rejected despite having confirmed university admissions and all documents in place. His persistence worked, and Mehrotra eventually left for the US to study engineering.

Micron joins the trillion-dollar club

Micron’s valuation has surged due to soaring demand for the AI-related memory chips used in data centres. The company’s stock has risen sharply in 2026, gaining around 180% this year, including nearly 7% in May alone, according to the report.

Micron crossed the $1 trillion market cap mark earlier this week, on May 26.

Also Read: AI rally: SK Hynix, Micron Technology join trillion-dollar club; Taiwan bourse overtakes India in market value

Indian-origin CEOs in the limelight

The Times of India report highlighted how Mehrotra’s rise completes a remarkable picture in corporate America, with three of the world’s most valuable tech companies—all with a market cap above $1 trillion—are now led by Indian-born executives.

Nadella, the son of a civil servant, grew up in Hyderabad, while Pichai was raised in a modest apartment in Chennai. Mehrotra also came from a middle-class family in Kanpur.

Why Mehrotra stands apart

Microsoft crossed the trillion-dollar threshold back in 2019 and is now valued at around $3.07 trillion. Meanwhile, Alphabet, which reached the milestone in 2020, is now valued at around $4.69 trillion.

Unlike Microsoft and Google, which were already dominant software companies when Nadella and Pichai took charge, Mehrotra took over Micron in 2017 when the company was valued at around $20 billion, the report noted.

The Times of India noted that the memory-chip business is highly competitive, capital-intensive and traditionally dominated by Asian companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Under Mehrotra, Micron became a major name in the AI race because memory chips are essential for storing and processing AI data.

The immigration irony

The Times of India report also pointed to the irony of Mehrotra’s rise in an era of strong anti-immigration politics in the US. President Donald Trump recently praised Micron as “one of the hottest stocks” after hosting Mehrotra at the White House.

Trump later included him in a business delegation during a visit to China.

At the same time, Indian-origin tech leaders have increasingly faced criticism from some right-wing groups in America over immigration, outsourcing and hiring practices. The report said similar criticism has also been targeted at IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, Nadella and Pichai.

Micron’s India plans

Micron is expanding investment in India as the country attempts to strengthen its semiconductor industry.

The company is investing more than $800 million in an Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) facility in Sanand, Gujarat. The report said that the facility will include one of the world’s largest single-floor assembly and testing cleanrooms, spanning around 500,000 square feet.

The report said Mehrotra has repeatedly described India as a long-term strategic investment for Micron because of the country’s engineering talent and manufacturing potential. In line with this, the company is hiring engineers, manufacturing specialists and automation experts for the project.