The OpenAI mafia: 18 startups based by alumni

Transfer over, PayPal mafia: There’s a brand new tech mafia in Silicon Valley. As the startup behind ChatGPT, OpenAI is arguably the largest AI participant on the town. The corporate is reportedly now in talks to finalize a $100 billion deal, valuing the company at more than $850 billion.  

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

In January, Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI’s first gross sales chief, spoke slightly bit about this rising community. She, like the other OpenAI alums who did not change into founders, determined to change into an investor and stated she was going to faucet into the ex-OpenAI founder community to search for deal move. We all know Peter Deng, OpenAI’s former head of client merchandise (and now common associate at Felicis) already has.  

Under is a roundup of the main startups based by OpenAI alumni, in alphabetical order. And we are sure this record 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 last raised $350 million at a valuation north of $1 billion in 2023, however Luan left in late 2024 to oversee Amazon’s AI agents lab after Amazon hired 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 spotlight on AI security. OpenAI co-founder John Schulman joined Anthropic in 2024, pledging to construct a “secure AGI.” The corporate has since change into OpenAI’s largest rival and simply raised a $30 billion Series G, nabbing a $380 billion valuation in the course of. IPO rumors are also swirling, as the firm reportedly prepares for a public itemizing that would come someday this 12 months. (OpenAI is additionally allegedly making ready for an IPO this 12 months and is maybe even trying to beat Anthropic to the 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 known as Utilized Compute, as reported by Upstart Media. All three of them labored as technical employees at OpenAI for greater than a 12 months before leaving final Could to launch the startup, per their LinkedIns. The startup helps enterprises prepare and deploy customized AI brokers. Benchmark led the spherical, valuing the 10-month-old firm at $100 million, Upstart Media reported. 

Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — Covariant

The trio all labored at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017 as analysis scientists before 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 few quarter of its employees. The quasi-acquisition was viewed by some as a part of a broader pattern of Large Tech making an attempt to keep away from antitrust scrutiny. 

Tim Shi — Cresta 

Tim Shi was an early member of OpenAI’s group, the place he targeted on constructing secure synthetic common intelligence (AGI), in accordance 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 heart startup that has raised over $270 million from VCs like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others, in accordance to a press release.

Jonas Schneider — Daedalus

Jonas Schneider led OpenAI’s software program engineering for robotics group however left in 2019 to co-found Daedalus, which builds superior factories for precision parts. The San Francisco-based startup raised a $21 million Series A last year 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 join Tesla in 2017 to lead its autopilot program. Karpathy is additionally well-known for his YouTube videos explaining core AI ideas. He left Tesla in 2024 to found his own education technology startup, Eureka Labs, a San Francisco-based startup that is 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 raising a $20.6 million Collection A in 2024. Jennings left Kindo in 2024 to head product and analysis at French AI startup Mistral, in accordance 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 battle local weather change. Residing Carbon raised a $21 million Collection A spherical in 2023, bringing its complete funding till then to $36 million, in accordance to a press release.

Liam Fedus — Periodic Labs  

Liam Fedus, OpenAI’s VP of post-training analysis, left the firm in March 2025 to group up together with his former Google Mind colleague, Ekin Dogus Cubuk, and launch Periodic Labs. The startup seeks to use AI scientists to discover new supplies, notably new superconducting supplies. It got here out of stealth mode in September 2025, armed with a massive $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 firm to co-found AI search engine Perplexity. His startup has attracted a string of high-profile buyers like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, though it’s additionally caused controversy over alleged unethical internet scraping. Perplexity, which is based mostly in San Francisco, final reported a raise 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 before co-founding San Francisco-based accounting startup Pilot in 2017. Pilot, which targeted initially on doing accounting for startups, last raised a $100 million Series C in 2021 at a $1.2 billion valuation and has attracted buyers 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 widespread 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 working on a robotic butler for individuals’s properties, a scorching pattern in robotics that different gamers like Norway’s 1X and Texas-based Apptronik are additionally working on.

Ilya Sutskever — Secure Superintelligence 

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

Emmett Shear — Stem AI

Emmett Shear is the former CEO of Twitch who was OpenAI’s interim CEO in November 2023 for a couple of days before Sam Altman rejoined the company. 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 stated at the time (moderately 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 lately made headlines when two of its co-founders introduced earlier this 12 months that they would return to OpenAI. 

Kyle Kosic — xAI

Kyle Kosic left OpenAI in 2023 to change into a co-founder and infrastructure lead of xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup that provides a rival chatbot, Grok. In 2024, nonetheless, he hopped back to OpenAI, the place he stays. In the meantime, xAI (which acquired Musk’s social media website X) was bought by Musk’s SpaceX, giving the coalesce firm a valuation of $1.25 trillion. It is looking to go public sometime in June for what might be a historic itemizing. 

Angela Jiang — Worktrace AI

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

Stealth Startups

As well as to these startups, quite a few different former OpenAI staff have based startups that are nonetheless in stealth mode, in accordance to numerous updates TechCrunch discovered on LinkedIn. As an example, plainly former OpenAI researcher Danilo Hellermark has been working on a generative AI stealth startup for the previous few years. He formally left OpenAI at the starting of 2023. There’s also one apparently in the works from Lucas Negritto, who labored on OpenAI’s technical group and left the firm in 2023 after three years. Since then, he’s based one startup and has been working on one other since August 2025, in accordance to his LinkedIn.