Meet the OpenAI Mafia: 15 Startups Founded by AI Innovators Changing the Tech Landscape
Techcrunch•1 week ago•
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Meet the OpenAI Mafia: 15 Startups Founded by AI Innovators Changing the Tech Landscape

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Summary:

  • OpenAI alumni are launching innovative startups, forming a new tech mafia.

  • Anthropic has quickly become OpenAI's biggest rival with a valuation of $61.5 billion.

  • Safe Superintelligence raised $2 billion and is valued at $32 billion.

  • Perplexity, founded by Aravind Srinivas, is valued at $18 billion.

  • Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab aims for customizable AI solutions.

Move over, PayPal mafia: There’s a new tech mafia in Silicon Valley, and it's powered by the brilliance of OpenAI alumni. As the startup behind ChatGPT, OpenAI has quickly become the leading player in the AI space, reaching a staggering $300 billion valuation. This success has led many former employees to embark on their own entrepreneurial journeys, launching a variety of innovative startups.

Notable Startups from the OpenAI Mafia

Here’s a roundup of some of the most notable startups founded by former OpenAI team members:

Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman — Anthropic

Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei founded Anthropic in 2021, focused on AI safety. They quickly became OpenAI’s biggest rival, achieving a valuation of $61.5 billion by March 2025.

Ilya Sutskever — Safe Superintelligence

OpenAI's co-founder Ilya Sutskever launched Safe Superintelligence in 2024 with the aim of creating a safe superintelligence. Despite having no product yet, it has raised $2 billion and reached a valuation of $32 billion.

Mira Murati — Thinking Machines Lab

Former CTO Mira Murati founded Thinking Machines Lab to develop more customizable and capable AI solutions, attracting significant investment interest.

Aravind Srinivas — Perplexity

Co-founder of the AI search engine Perplexity, Srinivas has garnered attention from high-profile investors like Jeff Bezos. The startup is currently valued at $18 billion.

Kyle Kosic — xAI

As part of Elon Musk's xAI, Kosic is involved in developing a rival chatbot, Grok. The company recently acquired X (formerly Twitter), reaching a combined valuation of $113 billion.

Emmett Shear — Stem AI

Former CEO of Twitch, Emmett Shear, is now leading Stem AI, a stealth startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz.

Andrej Karpathy — Eureka Labs

Karpathy, a computer vision expert, founded Eureka Labs to create AI teaching assistants after leaving Tesla.

Jeff Arnold — Pilot

Pilot, co-founded by Arnold, focuses on accounting services for startups and has reached a $1.2 billion valuation.

David Luan — Adept AI Labs

Luan co-founded Adept AI Labs, raising $350 million to develop AI tools for employees.

Tim Shi — Cresta

Cresta, focusing on AI for contact centers, has raised over $270 million from prominent VCs.

Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — Covariant

The trio founded Covariant, which specializes in building foundation AI models for robotics.

Maddie Hall — Living Carbon

Living Carbon aims to engineer plants that absorb more carbon for climate change mitigation, successfully raising $36 million so far.

Shariq Hashme — Prosper Robotics

Prosper Robotics is developing a robot butler, tapping into the growing trend of home robotics.

Jonas Schneider — Daedalus

Daedalus, co-founded by Schneider, focuses on advanced manufacturing and has raised $21 million.

Margaret Jennings — Kindo

Jennings co-founded Kindo, an AI chatbot for enterprises, which has raised over $27 million.

This OpenAI mafia is not just reshaping the tech landscape but also exemplifying the innovative spirit of Silicon Valley.

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