Thrice rebuffed for US visa, Sanjay Mehrotra now heads $1-trillion Micron!

Indian-origin technology leaders are reshaping corporate America, with the rise of Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra adding another remarkable chapter to the 5.4-million-strong Indian diaspora’s success story in the United States.

- BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

Mehrotra, who was denied a US student visa three times in the 1970s before finally gaining entry to pursue higher studies, has now joined an elite league of Indian-born executives leading trillion-dollar technology companies.

Alongside Microsoft chief Satya Nadella and Alphabet-Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Mehrotra today heads one of the world’s most strategically important firms at the centre of the global artificial intelligence revolution.

The journey of the Kanpur-born engineer reflects both the struggles and achievements of generations of Indian immigrants in America. As a young student from BITS Pilani in 1976, Mehrotra repeatedly failed to secure a US visa despite admissions from three American universities.

According to accounts from Washington, his father refused to leave the US embassy in New Delhi after the third rejection, and waited to personally appeal to a consular officer. The persistence paid off, opening the door to a career that would eventually transform Silicon Valley.

Nearly five decades later, Mehrotra heads Micron Technology, the American memory-chip giant whose market valuation recently crossed the $1-trillion mark amid the global AI boom.

The company has emerged as a critical player in the semiconductor race because advanced AI systems rely heavily on high-bandwidth memory chips produced by firms like Micron.

Mehrotra’s ascent completes what observers describe as an extraordinary “desi trio” atop corporate America. Microsoft, Alphabet and Micron — all trillion-dollar technology giants — are now led by Indian-born executives who arrived in the United States from middle-class Indian families with little more than academic talent and determination.