Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu highlights smart, well-educated Indian-Americans shifting to finance: 'Making money on money...'

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu, in a recent post on 'X', pointed out a concerning trend among smart, well-educated Indian-Americans, particularly those whose parents work in engineering or technology, moving to high finance. 

He alarmed that a finance-driven economy would destroy society. "Smart Indian-American children, whose parents work in engineering or tech, are moving to High Finance", Vembu shared on 'X'. 

Vembu further shared his own experience from year 1994, when he had completed his PhD from Princeton. A former engineer from Silicon Valley, who shifted his focus to finance, tried to pursuade him to join their quantitative analysis and trading team. 

"This mirrors what smart Americans have done for well over a generation - when I got my PhD from Princeton in 1994, a former engineer from silicon valley, who moved to a Wall Street job, tried to persuade me to join their quantitative analysis and trading team and I instead took a lower paying job as an engineer at Qualcomm. I did not find the idea of making money on money appealing - probably my father's admonition from childhood", shared the Zoho founder. 

Take a look at the post 

Smart Indian-American children, whose parents work in engineering or tech, are moving to High Finance.

This mirrors what smart Americans have done for well over a generation - when I got my PhD from Princeton in 1994, a former engineer from silicon valley, who moved to a Wall…

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) March 18, 2025

"Recently I have noticed that smart well-educated Indians are gravitating to Finance. This is not good. We need to apply our talents to solve hard engineering and tech problems, hard urban and rural infrastructure problems, hard health care problems and so on", Vembu emphasised. 

The Zoho founder further highlighted that a finance-driven economy would destroy society.

"Making money on money feels easy but a finance-driven economy would destroy society. This is ancient wisdom, and we must pay heed", he added.