{"id":2998812,"date":"2026-02-20T04:45:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=2998812"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:42:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:42:39","slug":"the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/20\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"The OpenAI mafia: 18 startups founded by alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Move over, PayPal mafia:\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0a new tech mafia in Silicon Valley. OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, is\u00a0arguably the\u00a0biggest AI player in town. The company is\u00a0reportedly now\u00a0in talks to\u00a0finalize\u00a0a\u00a0$100 billion\u00a0deal, valuing the\u00a0company at more than\u00a0$850 billion.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Many employees have come and gone since the company first launched a decade\u00a0ago, and\u00a0some\u00a0have launched startups of their own.\u00a0Among these, some\u00a0have become top rivals (like Anthropic), while others, just on investor\u00a0interest\u00a0alone, have managed to raise\u00a0billions without even launching a product (see Thinking Machines Lab).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

In January, Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI\u2019s first sales leader, spoke a little bit about this growing network. She, like the other OpenAI alums<\/a> who did not become founders, decided to become an investor and said she was going to tap into the ex-OpenAI founder network to look for deal flow. We know Peter Deng, OpenAI\u2019s former head of consumer products (and now general partner at Felicis) already has<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n

Below is a roundup of the major startups founded by OpenAI alumni, in alphabetical order. And we are certain this list will grow over time. <\/p>\n\n

David Luan \u2014 Adept AI Labs <\/h2>\n\n

David Luan was OpenAI\u2019s engineering VP until he left in 2020. After a stint at Google, in 2021 he co-founded Adept AI Labs, a startup that builds AI tools for employees. The startup last raised $350 million at a valuation north<\/a> of $1 billion in 2023, but Luan left in late 2024 to oversee Amazon\u2019s AI agents lab<\/a> after Amazon hired Adept’s founders<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman \u2014 Anthropic<\/h2>\n\n

Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei left OpenAI in 2021 to form their own startup, San Francisco-based Anthropic, which has long touted<\/a> a focus on AI safety. OpenAI co-founder John Schulman joined Anthropic in 2024<\/a>, pledging to build a \u201csafe AGI.\u201d The company has since become OpenAI\u2019s biggest rival and just raised a $30 billion Series G, nabbing a $380 billion valuation <\/a>in the process. IPO rumors are also swirling,<\/a> as the company reportedly prepares for a public listing that could come sometime this year. (OpenAI is also allegedly preparing for an IPO this year and is maybe even trying to beat Anthropic <\/a>to the public market.)\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n

Rhythm Garg, Linden Li, and Yash Patil \u2014 Applied Compute <\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n

Three ex-OpenAI staffers (Rhythm Garg, Linden Li, and Yash Patil) have reportedly raised $20 million for a startup called Applied Compute, as reported by Upstarts Media<\/a>. All three of them worked as technical staff at OpenAI for more than a year before leaving last May to launch the startup, per their LinkedIns. The startup helps enterprises train and deploy custom AI agents. Benchmark led the round, valuing the 10-month-old company at $100 million, Upstarts Media reported.\u00a0
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Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan \u2014 Covariant<\/h2>\n\n

The trio all worked at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017 as research scientists before founding Covariant, a Berkeley, California-based startup that builds foundation AI models for robots. In 2024, Amazon hired all three of the Covariant founders and about a quarter of its staff. The quasi-acquisition was viewed by some<\/a> as part of a broader trend of Big Tech attempting to avoid antitrust scrutiny. <\/p>\n\n

Tim Shi \u2014 Cresta <\/h2>\n\n

Tim Shi was an early member of OpenAI\u2019s team, where he focused on building safe artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked at OpenAI for a year in 2017 but left to found Cresta, a San Francisco-based AI contact center startup that has raised over $270 million from VCs like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others, according to a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Jonas Schneider \u2014 Daedalus<\/h2>\n\n

Jonas Schneider led OpenAI\u2019s software engineering for robotics team but left in 2019 to co-found Daedalus, which builds advanced factories for precision components. The San Francisco-based startup raised a $21 million Series A last year<\/a> with backing from Khosla Ventures, among others.<\/p>\n\n

Andrej Karpathy \u2014 Eureka Labs<\/h2>\n\n

Computer vision expert Andrej Karpathy was a founding member and research scientist at OpenAI, leaving the startup to join Tesla in 2017<\/a> to lead its autopilot program. Karpathy is also well-known for his YouTube videos<\/a> explaining core AI concepts. He left Tesla in 2024 to found his own education technology startup<\/a>, Eureka Labs, a San Francisco-based startup that is building AI teaching assistants.<\/p>\n\n

Margaret Jennings \u2014 Kindo<\/h2>\n\n

Margaret Jennings worked at OpenAI in 2022 and 2023 until she left to co-found Kindo, which markets itself as an AI chatbot for enterprises<\/a>. Kindo has raised over $27 million in funding, last raising a $20.6 million Series A in 2024. Jennings left Kindo in 2024 to head product and research at French AI startup Mistral, according to her LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n\n

Maddie Hall \u2014 Living Carbon<\/h2>\n\n

Maddie Hall worked on “special projects” at OpenAI but left in 2019 to co-found Living Carbon, a San Francisco-based startup that aims to create engineered plants that can suck more carbon out of the sky to fight climate change. Living Carbon raised a $21 million Series A round in 2023, bringing its total funding until then to $36 million, according to a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Liam Fedus \u2014 Periodic Labs <\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n

Liam Fedus, OpenAI\u2019s VP of post-training research, left the company in March 2025 to team up with his former Google Brain colleague, Ekin Dogus Cubuk, to launch Periodic Labs<\/a>. The startup seeks to use AI scientists to find new materials, particularly new superconducting materials. It came out of stealth mode in September 2025, armed with a massive $300 million<\/a> in seed-round funding with backers that included Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Felicis, and Andreessen Horowitz.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Aravind Srinivas \u2014 Perplexity<\/h2>\n\n

Aravind Srinivas worked as a research scientist at OpenAI for a year until 2022, when he left the company to co-found AI search engine Perplexity. His startup has attracted a string of high-profile investors like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, although it\u2019s also caused controversy<\/a> over alleged unethical web scraping. Perplexity, which is based in San Francisco, last reported a raise of $200 million at a $20 billion valuation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Jeff Arnold \u2014 Pilot<\/h2>\n\n

Jeff Arnold worked as OpenAI\u2019s head of operations for five months in 2016 before co-founding San Francisco-based accounting startup Pilot in 2017. Pilot, which focused initially on doing accounting for startups, last raised a $100 million Series C in 2021 at a $1.2 billion valuation<\/a> and has attracted investors like Jeff Bezos. Arnold worked as Pilot\u2019s COO until leaving<\/a> in 2024 to launch a VC fund.<\/p>\n\n

Shariq Hashme \u2014 Prosper Robotics<\/h2>\n\n

Shariq Hashme worked for OpenAI for 9 months in 2017 on a bot that could play the popular video game Dota, per his LinkedIn profile. After a few years at data-labeling startup Scale AI, he co-founded London-based Prosper Robotics in 2021. The startup says it\u2019s working on a robot butler for people\u2019s homes, a hot trend in robotics that other players like Norway’s 1X<\/a> and Texas-based Apptronik<\/a> are also working on.<\/p>\n\n

Ilya Sutskever \u2014 Safe Superintelligence <\/h2>\n\n

OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI in May 2024<\/a> after he was reportedly part of a failed effort<\/a> to replace CEO Sam Altman<\/a>. Shortly afterward, he co-founded Safe Superintelligence, or SSI<\/a>, with \u201cone goal and one product: a safe superintelligence,\u201d he says. Details about what exactly the startup is up to are scant: It has no product and no revenue yet. But investors are clamoring for a piece anyway, and it\u2019s been able to raise $2 billion, with its latest valuation reportedly rising to $32 billion<\/a> this month. SSI is based in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.<\/p>\n\n

Emmett Shear \u2014 Stem AI<\/h2>\n\n

Emmett Shear is the former CEO of Twitch who was OpenAI\u2019s interim CEO in November 2023 <\/a>for a few days before Sam Altman rejoined the company<\/a>. Shear launched an AI company, StemAI, in 2024 (though it seems to have since rebranded as Softmax<\/a>). The company, which appears to be focused on research, has attracted funding from Andreessen Horowitz.<\/p>\n\n

Mira Murati \u2014 Thinking Machines Lab <\/h2>\n\n

Mira Murati, OpenAI\u2019s CTO, left OpenAI to found her own company, Thinking Machines Lab, which emerged from stealth<\/a> in February 2025. It said at the time (rather vaguely) that it will build AI that\u2019s more \u201ccustomizable\u201d and \u201ccapable.\u201d The San Francisco AI startup, now valued at $12 billion, announced its first product late last year: an API that fine-tunes language models. It recently made headlines when two of its co-founders announced earlier this year that they would return to OpenAI<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Kyle Kosic \u2014 xAI<\/h2>\n\n

Kyle Kosic left OpenAI in 2023 to become a co-founder and infrastructure lead of xAI, Elon Musk\u2019s AI startup that offers a rival chatbot, Grok. In 2024, however, he hopped back<\/a> to OpenAI, where he remains. Meanwhile, xAI (which acquired Musk\u2019s social media site X) was purchased by Musk\u2019s SpaceX<\/a>, giving the combined company a valuation of $1.25 trillion. It is looking to go public sometime in June<\/a> for what could be a historic listing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Angela Jiang \u2014 Worktrace AI <\/h2>\n\n

Angela Jiang left OpenAI in 2024, after working as a product manager and on the public policy team. In April 2025, she quietly launched Worktrace<\/a>, which uses AI to help enterprises make business operations more efficient<\/a>. It observes employee work patterns and automates workflow, according to the company\u2019s website. The business is backed by Mira Murati, OpenAI\u2019s former CTO, who went on to launch Thinking Machines Lab. It is also backed by OpenAI\u2019s startup fund, in addition to a slew of other OpenAI names, like its chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Stealth startups<\/h2>\n\n

In addition to these startups, a number of other former OpenAI employees have founded startups that are still in stealth mode, according to various updates TechCrunch found on LinkedIn. For instance, it seems that former OpenAI researcher Danilo Hellermark has been working on a generative AI stealth startup for the past few years. He officially left OpenAI at the beginning of 2023. There\u2019s also one apparently in the works from <\/a>Lucas Negritto<\/a>,<\/a> who worked on OpenAI\u2019s technical team and left the company in 2023 after three years. Since then, he\u2019s founded one startup and has been working on another since August 2025, according to his LinkedIn.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many employees have come and gone since OpenAI first launched a decade ago, and some have launched startups of their own. 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