OpenAI Alumni: The 18 Startups Building the Future

Move over, PayPal mafia: there’s a new tech mafia in Silicon Valley. As the startup behind ChatGPT, OpenAI is arguably the biggest AI player in town. The company is reportedly now in talks to finalize a $100 billion deal, valuing the company at more than $850 billion. This explosive growth has spawned a wave of innovation, not just within OpenAI itself, but through the ventures launched by its former employees. Many talented individuals have come and gone since the company’s inception a decade ago, and a significant number have gone on to found their own startups. Some have become direct competitors, like Anthropic, while others have attracted billions in investment even before launching a product, such as Thinking Machine Labs. This article dives deep into the landscape of startups founded by OpenAI alumni, exploring their missions, funding, and potential impact on the future of AI.

The Rise of the "OpenAI Mafia"

In January, Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI’s first sales leader, highlighted the growing network of former employees. Like many other OpenAI alumni who didn’t become founders, she’s now focused on investing, actively leveraging the ex-OpenAI founder network for deal flow. Peter Deng, OpenAI’s former head of consumer products (now a general partner at Felicis), is already doing the same. This interconnectedness and shared experience are creating a powerful ecosystem of innovation, driving the next generation of AI advancements.

The success of these startups isn't solely based on the talent of their founders. The OpenAI pedigree carries significant weight with investors, signaling a high probability of success. The rigorous training and exposure to cutting-edge research at OpenAI provide these founders with a unique advantage in a rapidly evolving field. This has led to impressive valuations and funding rounds, even in the early stages of development.

A Roundup of Major Startups Founded by OpenAI Alumni

Below is a comprehensive overview of the major startups founded by OpenAI alumni, presented in alphabetical order. This list is constantly evolving as more individuals venture out on their own.

Adept AI Labs – David Luan

David Luan served as OpenAI’s engineering VP until 2020. Following a period at Google, he co-founded Adept AI Labs in 2021, a startup focused on building AI tools for employees. Adept AI Labs secured $350 million in funding at a valuation exceeding $1 billion in 2023. However, Luan departed in late 2024 to lead Amazon’s AI agents lab, following Amazon’s acquisition of Adept’s founders.

Anthropic – Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman

Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei left OpenAI in 2021 to establish Anthropic, a San Francisco-based startup with a strong emphasis on AI safety. OpenAI co-founder John Schulman joined Anthropic in 2024, committed to building a “safe AGI.” Anthropic has quickly become OpenAI’s biggest rival, recently raising a $30 billion Series G round, achieving a $380 billion valuation. IPO rumors are circulating, with potential listing sometime this year. (OpenAI is also reportedly preparing for an IPO, potentially aiming to beat Anthropic to market.)

Applied Compute – Rhythm Garg, Linden Li, and Yash Patil

Three former OpenAI staffers – Rhythm Garg, Linden Li, and Yash Patil – reportedly raised $20 million for Applied Compute, as reported by GearTech. All three worked as technical staff at OpenAI for over a year before launching the startup last May. Applied Compute helps enterprises train and deploy custom AI agents. Benchmark led the round, valuing the 10-month-old company at $100 million, according to GearTech.

Covariant – Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan

This trio worked at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017 as research scientists before founding Covariant, a Berkeley, California-based startup building foundation AI models for robots. In 2024, Amazon acquired all three founders and approximately a quarter of Covariant’s staff. This acquisition was seen by some as a strategic move by Big Tech to circumvent antitrust scrutiny.

Cresta – Tim Shi

Tim Shi was an early member of the OpenAI team, focusing on safe artificial general intelligence (AGI). He left in 2017 to found Cresta, a San Francisco-based AI contact center startup that has raised over $270 million from prominent VCs like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

Daedalus – Jonas Schneider

Jonas Schneider led OpenAI’s software engineering for robotics before co-founding Daedalus in 2019. Daedalus, based in San Francisco, builds advanced factories for precision components. The startup raised a $21 million Series A round last year, backed by Khosla Ventures, among others.

Eureka Labs – Andrej Karpathy

Computer vision expert Andrej Karpathy was a founding member and research scientist at OpenAI. He later joined Tesla in 2017 to lead its autopilot program and became known for his educational YouTube videos on AI. Karpathy left Tesla in 2024 to found Eureka Labs, a San Francisco-based education technology startup building AI teaching assistants.

Kindo – Margaret Jennings

Margaret Jennings worked at OpenAI in 2022 and 2023 before co-founding Kindo, an AI chatbot for enterprises. Kindo has raised over $27 million in funding, including a $20.6 million Series A in 2024. Jennings subsequently left Kindo in 2024 to lead product and research at French AI startup Mistral.

Living Carbon – Maddie Hall

Maddie Hall worked on “special projects” at OpenAI before co-founding Living Carbon in 2019. Living Carbon, based in San Francisco, aims to create engineered plants that absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to combat climate change. The startup raised a $21 million Series A round in 2023, bringing its total funding to $36 million.

Periodic Labs – Liam Fedus

Liam Fedus, OpenAI’s VP of post-training research, left in March 2025 to co-launch Periodic Labs with former Google Brain colleague Ekin Dogus Cubuk. The startup utilizes AI scientists to discover new materials, particularly superconducting materials. It emerged from stealth in September 2025 with a substantial $300 million seed round, backed by investors including Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Felicis, and Andreessen Horowitz.

Perplexity – Aravind Srinivas

Aravind Srinivas worked as a research scientist at OpenAI until 2022, when he co-founded AI search engine Perplexity. The startup has attracted investment from Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, but has also faced controversy regarding alleged unethical web scraping. Perplexity, based in San Francisco, last reported a raise of $200 million at a $20 billion valuation.

Pilot – Jeff Arnold

Jeff Arnold worked as OpenAI’s head of operations for five months in 2016 before co-founding Pilot in 2017. Pilot, initially focused on accounting for startups, raised a $100 million Series C in 2021 at a $1.2 billion valuation, attracting investors like Jeff Bezos. Arnold served as Pilot’s COO until 2024, when he launched a VC fund.

Prosper Robotics – Shariq Hashme

Shariq Hashme worked at OpenAI for nine months in 2017 on a bot designed to play Dota. After a stint at Scale AI, he co-founded London-based Prosper Robotics in 2021, developing a robot butler for homes – a growing trend in robotics.

Safe Superintelligence – Ilya Sutskever

OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI in May 2024 following a failed attempt to replace CEO Sam Altman. He subsequently co-founded Safe Superintelligence (SSI), aiming to create a safe superintelligence. SSI, based in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel, has raised $2 billion at a reported valuation of $32 billion, despite having no product or revenue.

Stem AI (Softmax) – Emmett Shear

Emmett Shear, former CEO of Twitch and OpenAI’s interim CEO in November 2023, launched StemAI (now rebranded as Softmax) in 2024. The company appears to be a research-focused organization, backed by Andreessen Horowitz.

Thinking Machines Lab – Mira Murati

Mira Murati, OpenAI’s former CTO, founded Thinking Machines Lab, which emerged from stealth in February 2025. The startup aims to build more customizable and capable AI. Valued at $12 billion, it launched its first product – an API for fine-tuning language models – late last year. Two co-founders recently announced their return to OpenAI.

xAI – Kyle Kosic

Kyle Kosic left OpenAI in 2023 to become a co-founder and infrastructure lead at xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup. However, he returned to OpenAI in 2024. xAI, acquired by Musk’s SpaceX, is valued at $1.25 trillion and plans to go public in June.

Worktrace AI – Angela Jiang

Angela Jiang left OpenAI in 2024, after roles in product management and public policy. In April 2025, she launched Worktrace, which uses AI to improve enterprise efficiency by observing employee work patterns and automating workflows. Backed by Mira Murati and OpenAI’s startup fund, Worktrace is gaining traction.

Stealth Startups: The Future is Being Built in Secret

Beyond these publicly known ventures, numerous other former OpenAI employees are working on startups in stealth mode. For example, Danilo Hellermark, a former OpenAI researcher, has been developing a generative AI startup for the past few years, officially leaving OpenAI in early 2023. Lucas Negritto, who worked on OpenAI’s technical team, founded a startup and is currently developing another, as of August 2025.

The "OpenAI mafia" is rapidly reshaping the AI landscape. Their collective expertise, access to capital, and unwavering focus on innovation promise to deliver groundbreaking advancements in the years to come. GearTech will continue to monitor these developments and provide updates on this exciting and dynamic field.