The OpenAI mafia: 18 startups based by alumni

[ad_1] Transfer over, PayPal mafia: There’s a brand new tech mafia in Silicon Valley. Because the startup behind ChatGPT, OpenAI is arguably the greatest AI participant on the town. The corporate is reportedly now in talks to finalize a $100 billion deal, valuing the firm at greater than $850 billion.

Many workers have come and gone because the firm first launched a decade in the past, and some have launched startups of their very own. Amongst these, some have turn into prime rivals (like Anthropic), whereas others, simply on investor curiosity alone, have managed to lift billions with out even launching a product (see, Pondering Machine Labs).

In January, Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI’s first gross sales chief, spoke a bit of bit about this rising community. She, like the opposite OpenAI alums who didn't turn into founders, determined to turn into an investor and mentioned she was going to faucet into the ex-OpenAI founder community to search for deal stream. We all know Peter Deng, OpenAI’s former head of shopper merchandise (and now common accomplice at Felicis) already has.

Under is a roundup of the key startups based by OpenAI alumni, in alphabetical order. And we're sure this listing will develop over time.

David Luan — Adept AI Labs

David Luan was OpenAI’s engineering VP till he left in 2020. After a stint at Google, in 2021 he co-founded Adept AI Labs, a startup that builds AI instruments for workers. The startup final raised $350 million at a valuation north of $1 billion in 2023, however Luan left in late 2024 to supervise Amazon’s AI brokers lab after Amazon employed Adept’s founders.

Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman — Anthropic

Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei left OpenAI in 2021 to type their very own startup, San Francisco-based Anthropic, that has lengthy touted a concentrate on AI security. OpenAI co-founder John Schulman joined Anthropic in 2024, pledging to construct a “protected AGI.” The corporate has since turn into OpenAI’s greatest rival and simply raised a $30 billion Sequence G, nabbing a $380 billion valuation within the course of. IPO rumors are additionally swirling, as the corporate reportedly prepares for a public itemizing that would come someday this 12 months. (OpenAI can be allegedly making ready for an IPO this 12 months and is perhaps even attempting to beat Anthropic to the general public market.)

Rhythm Garg, Linden Li, and Yash Patil — Utilized Compute

Three ex-OpenAI staffers (Rhythm Garg, Linden Li, and Yash Patil) have reportedly raised $20 million for a startup referred to as Utilized Compute, as reported by Upstart Media. All three of them labored as technical workers at OpenAI for greater than a 12 months earlier than leaving final Could to launch the startup, per their LinkedIns. The startup helps enterprises practice and deploy customized AI brokers. Benchmark led the spherical, valuing the 10-month-old firm at $100 million, Upstart Media reported.

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Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — Covariant

The trio all labored at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017 as analysis scientists earlier than founding Covariant, a Berkeley, California-based startup that builds basis AI fashions for robots. In 2024, Amazon employed all three of the Covariant founders and a couple of quarter of its workers. The quasi-acquisition was considered by some as a part of a broader pattern of Huge Tech trying to keep away from antitrust scrutiny.

Tim Shi — Cresta

Tim Shi was an early member of OpenAI’s workforce, the place he centered on constructing protected synthetic common intelligence (AGI), in response to his LinkedIn profile. He labored at OpenAI for a 12 months in 2017 however left to discovered Cresta, a San Francisco-based AI contact middle startup that has raised over $270 million from VCs like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others, in response to a press launch.

Jonas Schneider — Daedalus

Jonas Schneider led OpenAI’s software program engineering for robotics workforce however left in 2019 to co-found Daedalus, which builds superior factories for precision parts. The San Francisco-based startup raised a $21 million Sequence A final 12 months with backing from Khosla Ventures, amongst others.

Andrej Karpathy — Eureka Labs

Laptop imaginative and prescient skilled Andrej Karpathy was a founding member and analysis scientist at OpenAI, leaving the startup to affix Tesla in 2017 to steer its autopilot program. Karpathy can be well-known for his YouTube movies explaining core AI ideas. He left Tesla in 2024 to discovered his personal training know-how startup, Eureka Labs, a San Francisco-based startup that's constructing AI educating assistants.

Margaret Jennings — Kindo

Margaret Jennings labored at OpenAI in 2022 and 2023 till she left to co-found Kindo, which markets itself as an AI chatbot for enterprises. Kindo has raised over $27 million in funding, final elevating a $20.6 million Sequence A in 2024. Jennings left Kindo in 2024 to go product and analysis at French AI startup Mistral, in response to her LinkedIn profile.

Maddie Corridor — Residing Carbon

Maddie Corridor labored on “particular tasks” at OpenAI however left in 2019 to co-found Residing Carbon, a San Francisco-based startup that goals to create engineered vegetation that may suck extra carbon out of the sky to struggle local weather change. Residing Carbon raised a $21 million Sequence A spherical in 2023, bringing its whole funding till then to $36 million, in response to a press launch.

Liam Fedus — Periodic Labs

Liam Fedus, OpenAI’s VP of post-training analysis, left the corporate in March 2025 to workforce up along with his former Google Mind colleague, Ekin Dogus Cubuk, and launch Periodic Labs. The startup seeks to make use of AI scientists to seek out new supplies, notably new superconducting supplies. It got here out of stealth mode in September 2025, armed with an enormous $300 million in seed-round funding with backers that included Jezz Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Felicis and Andreessen Horowitz.

Aravind Srinivas — Perplexity

Aravind Srinivas labored as a analysis scientist at OpenAI for a 12 months till 2022, when he left the corporate to co-found AI search engine Perplexity. His startup has attracted a string of high-profile traders like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, though it’s additionally precipitated controversy over alleged unethical net scraping. Perplexity, which is predicated in San Francisco, final reported a increase of $200 million at a $20 billion valuation.

Jeff Arnold — Pilot

Jeff Arnold labored as OpenAI’s head of operations for 5 months in 2016 earlier than co-founding San Francisco-based accounting startup Pilot in 2017. Pilot, which centered initially on doing accounting for startups, final raised a $100 million Sequence C in 2021 at a $1.2 billion valuation and has attracted traders like Jeff Bezos. Arnold labored as Pilot’s COO till leaving in 2024 to launch a VC fund.

Shariq Hashme — Prosper Robotics

Shariq Hashme labored for OpenAI for 9 months in 2017 on a bot that would play the favored online game Dota, per his LinkedIn profile. After a couple of years at data-labeling startup Scale AI, he co-founded London-based Prosper Robotics in 2021. The startup says it’s engaged on a robotic butler for individuals’s houses, a scorching pattern in robotics that different gamers like Norway’s 1X and Texas-based Apptronik are additionally engaged on.

Ilya Sutskever — Protected Superintelligence

OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI in Could 2024 after he was reportedly a part of a failed effort to exchange CEO Sam Altman. Shortly afterward, he co-founded Protected Superintelligence, or SSI, with “one purpose and one product: a protected superintelligence,” he says. Particulars about what precisely the startup is as much as are scant: It has no product and no income but. However traders are clamoring for a chunk anyway, and it’s been in a position to increase $2 billion, with its newest valuation reportedly rising to $32 billion this month. SSI is predicated in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Emmett Shear — Stem AI

Emmett Shear is the previous CEO of Twitch who was OpenAI’s interim CEO in November 2023 for a couple of days earlier than Sam Altman rejoined the corporate. Shear launched an AI firm, StemAI, in 2024 (although it appears to have since rebranded as Softmax). The corporate, which seems to be a analysis firm, has attracted funding from Andreessen Horowitz.

Mira Murati — Pondering Machines Lab

Mira Murati, OpenAI’s CTO, left OpenAI to discovered her personal firm, Pondering Machines Lab, which emerged from stealth in February 2025. It mentioned on the time (fairly vaguely) that it's going to construct AI that’s extra “customizable” and “succesful.” The San Francisco AI startup, now valued at $12 billion, introduced its first product late final 12 months: an API that fine-tunes language fashions. It not too long ago made headlines when two of its co-founders introduced earlier this 12 months that they'd return to OpenAI.

Kyle Kosic — xAI

Kyle Kosic left OpenAI in 2023 to turn into a co-founder and infrastructure lead of xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup that provides a rival chatbot, Grok. In 2024, nevertheless, he hopped again to OpenAI, the place he stays. In the meantime, xAI (which acquired Musk’s social media web site X) was bought by Musk’s SpaceX, giving the coalesce firm a valuation of $1.25 trillion. It's seeking to go public someday in June for what could possibly be a historic itemizing.

Angela Jiang — Worktrace AI

Angela Jiang left OpenAI in 2024, after working as a product supervisor and on the general public coverage workforce. In April 2025, she quietly launched Worktrace, which makes use of AI to assist enterprises make enterprise operations extra environment friendly. It observes worker work patterns and automates workflow, in response to the corporate’s web site. The enterprise is backed by Mura Murati, OpenAI’s former CTO, who went on to launch Pondering Labs. It is usually backed by OpenAI’s startup fund, along with a slew of different OpenAI names, like its chief technique officer, Jason Kwon.

Stealth Startups

Along with these startups, quite a lot of different former OpenAI workers have based startups which might be nonetheless in stealth mode, in response to numerous updates TechCrunch discovered on LinkedIn. For example, evidently former OpenAI researcher Danilo Hellermark has been engaged on a generative AI stealth startup for the previous few years. He formally left OpenAI in the beginning of 2023. There’s additionally one apparently within the works from Lucas Negritto, who labored on OpenAI’s technical workforce and left the corporate in 2023 after three years. Since then, he’s based one startup and has been engaged on one other since August 2025, in response to his LinkedIn.