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Move over , PayPal Sicilian Mafia : There ’s a new technical school maffia in Silicon Valley . As the startup behind ChatGPT , OpenAI is arguably the biggest AI player in town . Its meteorologic riseto a $ 300 billion valuationhas spur many employees to allow for the AI heavyweight to make startup of their own .
The ballyhoo around OpenAI is so high that some of these startups , like Ilya Sutskever ’s Safe Superintelligence and Mira Murati ’s Thinking Machines Lab , have been able to raise billions of dollar without even launching a product .
But there are lots of other startups in the OpenAI mafia ecosystem . These reach from AI search giant Perplexity to xAI , the young owner of X ( formerly Twitter.)There ’s also smaller getup with some futurist plans , like Living Carbon , which is create plant that go down on more carbon paper out of the atmosphere , or Prosper Robotics , which is building a golem butler .
Below is a roundup of the most noteworthy inauguration founded by OpenAI alum .
Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman — Anthropic
Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei leave OpenAI in 2021 to form their own startup , San Francisco - based Anthropic , that has longtouteda focus on AI safety . Later , OpenAI co - founding father John Schulmanjoined Anthropic in 2024 , pledging to work up a “ secure AGI . ” OpenAI reportedly remain multiple times larger than Anthropic by revenue ( $ 3.7 billioncompared to$1 billionfor 2024 , The Information reported ) . But Anthropic has apace grown to become OpenAI ’s biggest competitor andwas evaluate at $ 61.5 billion in March 2025 .
Ilya Sutskever — Safe Superintelligence
OpenAI atomic number 27 - beginner and primary scientist Ilya Sutskeverleft OpenAI in May 2024after he was reportedlypart of a give way effortto replaceCEO Sam Altman . in short afterward , heco - founded Safe Superintelligence , or SSI , with “ one goal and one product : a safe superintelligence , ” he sound out . Details about what incisively the startup is up to are scant : It has no product and no revenue yet . But investor are clamor for a small-arm anyway , and it ’s been able to raise $ 2 billion , with its late valuation reportedlyrising to $ 32 billionthis month . SSI is ground in Palo Alto , California , and Tel Aviv , Israel .
Mira Murati — Thinking Machines Lab
Mira Murati , OpenAI ’s CTO , left OpenAI last twelvemonth to found her own company , Thinking Machines Lab , whichemerged from stealthin February 2025 , announcing ( rather vaguely ) that it will make AI that ’s more “ customizable ” and “ up to . ” The San Francisco AI startup has no merchandise or revenue butplenty of former top OpenAI researchersand isreportedly in the process of raisinga monolithic $ 2 billion seed round valuing it at $ 10 billion , minimum .
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Aravind Srinivas — Perplexity
Aravind Srinivas worked as a research scientist at OpenAI for a year until 2022 , when he left the company to co - found AI lookup engine Perplexity . His inauguration has pull in a string of high - visibility investors like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia , although it ’s alsocaused controversyover alleged unethical World Wide Web scraping . Perplexity , which is found in San Francisco , is currentlyraising about $ 1 billion at an $ 18 billion valuationas of March 2025 .
Kyle Kosic — xAI
Kyle Kosic go out OpenAI in 2023 to become a atomic number 27 - laminitis and infrastructure lead of xAI , Elon Musk ’s AI inauguration that offers a rival chatbot , Grok . In 2024 , however , hehopped backto OpenAI . Palo Alto - based xAIrecently acquire X , formerly Twitter , and gave the meld entity a valuation of $ 113 billion . The all - blood line dealings raised some brow but isa good deal if you ’re look on Musk ’s empire .
Emmett Shear — Stem AI
Emmett Shear is the former CEO of Twitch who wasOpenAI ’s interim CEO in November 2023for a few day beforeSam Altman rejoined the company . Shear is working on hisown stealth inauguration , called Stem AI , TechCrunch revealedin 2024 . Although there are few details about its action and fundraising so far , it has already pull in funding from Andreessen Horowitz .
Andrej Karpathy — Eureka Labs
Computer vision expert Andrej Karpathy was a founding member and research scientist at OpenAI , leavingthe inauguration to join Tesla in 2017to lead its autopilot program . Karpathy is also well - have sex for his YouTubevideosexplaining core AI conception . He left Tesla in 2024 tofound his own education engineering inauguration , Eureka Labs , a San Francisco - based inauguration that is make AI teaching assistants .
Jeff Arnold — Pilot
Jeff Arnold worked as OpenAI ’s forefront of cognitive process for five calendar month in 2016 before co - founding San Francisco - based accounting startup Pilot in 2017 . Pilot , which focused ab initio on doing accounting for startups , last raised a $ 100 million Series C in 2021 at a $ 1.2 billion valuationand has attracted investor like Jeff Bezos . Arnold worked as Pilot ’s COO untilleavingin 2024 to launch a VC fund .
David Luan — Adept AI Labs
David Luan was OpenAI ’s engineering VP until he left in 2020 . After a stretch at Google , in 2021 he co - founded Adept AI Labs , a inauguration that builds AI pecker for employees . The startuplast provoke $ 350 million at a evaluation northof $ 1 billion in 2023 , but Luanleft in late 2024 to oversee Amazon ’s AI agents labafterAmazon hired Adept ’s founders .
Tim Shi — Cresta
Tim Shi was an early member of OpenAI ’s team , where he focus on build good stilted general intelligence ( AGI ) , according to his LinkedIn visibility . He work at OpenAI for a year in 2017 but left to found Cresta , a San Francisco - base AI tangency center of attention startup that has raised over $ 270 million from VCs like Sequoia Capital , Andreessen Horowitz , and others , consort to apress passing .
Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — Covariant
The trio all worked at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017 as inquiry scientists before founding Covariant , a Berkeley , California - based startup that build foundation AI models for robot . In 2024,Amazon hired all three of the Covariant foundersand about a quarter of its staff . The quasi acquisition wasviewed by someas part of a broader trend of Big Tech essay to debar antimonopoly scrutiny .
Maddie Hall — Living Carbon
Maddie Hall act on “ peculiar task ” at OpenAI but left in 2019 to co - found Living Carbon , a San Francisco - based inauguration that aims to create organise plants that can suck more carbon out of the sky to fight climate change . Living Carbon lift a $ 21 million Series A unit of ammunition in 2023 , bring its full financial support until then to $ 36 million , consort to apress discharge .
Shariq Hashme — Prosper Robotics
Shariq Hashme ferment for OpenAI for 9 months in 2017 on a bot that could play the popular video plot 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 inauguration says it ’s put to work on a robot butler for masses ’s homes , a hot trend in robotics that other playerslike Norway ’s 1XandTexas - ground Apptronikare also work out on .
Jonas Schneider — Daedalus
Jonas Schneider lead OpenAI ’s software technology for robotics team but leave in 2019 to co - found Daedalus , which ramp up innovative factories for precision constituent . The San Francisco - based startupraised a $ 21 million Series A last yearwith funding from Khosla Ventures , among others .
Margaret Jennings — Kindo
Margaret Jennings worked at OpenAI in 2022 and 2023 until she leave to co - found Kindo , whichmarkets itself as an AI chatbot for enterprises . Kindo has raise over $ 27 million in financing , lastraisinga $ 20.6 million Series A in 2024 . Jennings left Kindo in 2024 to maneuver product and research at French AI startup Mistral , allot to her LinkedIn profile .
