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Step aside, PayPal mafia: A new wave of tech innovators is emerging from Silicon Valley. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has become a central hub, arguably the leading force in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Its rapid ascent to a $300 billion valuation has inspired numerous employees to depart the AI leader and establish their own ventures, significantly impacting the landscape for AI startups.
The buzz surrounding OpenAI is substantial, empowering some of these nascent companies, such as Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence and Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, to secure billions in funding even before introducing a single product.
The “OpenAI mafia” ecosystem encompasses a multitude of other emerging companies. These range from AI search innovator Perplexity to xAI, the current owner of X (formerly Twitter). Additionally, there are smaller entities pursuing cutting-edge initiatives, like Living Carbon, which focuses on creating plants with enhanced carbon absorption capabilities, and Prosper Robotics, which is developing a robot butler.
Below is a compendium of notable startups launched by OpenAI alumni, showcasing the wide influence of the AI powerhouse.
Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman — Anthropic
Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei departed OpenAI in 2021 to establish Anthropic, a San Francisco-based enterprise emphasizing AI safety. Later, OpenAI co-founder John Schulman joined Anthropic in 2024, committing to create a “safe AGI.” While OpenAI reportedly maintains a significantly larger revenue base compared to Anthropic ($3.7 billion versus $1 billion projected for 2024, according to The Information), Anthropic has rapidly emerged as OpenAI’s principal competitor, achieving a valuation of $61.5 billion by March 2025.
Ilya Sutskever — Safe Superintelligence
Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist, exited the company in May 2024, reportedly following his involvement in an unsuccessful attempt to replace CEO Sam Altman. Shortly thereafter, he co-founded Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, with “one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence,” according to Sutskever. Details regarding the startup’s specific endeavors remain limited: It presently lacks both a product and revenue. Nevertheless, investors are vying for involvement, and the company has successfully raised $2 billion, with its valuation reportedly reaching $32 billion this month. SSI operates from locations in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.
Mira Murati — Thinking Machines Lab
Mira Murati, formerly the CTO of OpenAI, left the company to launch Thinking Machines Lab, which emerged from stealth mode in February 2025, announcing its intention to develop AI that is more “customizable” and “capable.” This San Francisco-based AI startup currently lacks both a product and revenue but has assembled a team of former top OpenAI researchers and is reportedly raising a substantial $2 billion seed round that would value the company at a minimum of $10 billion.
Aravind Srinivas — Perplexity
Aravind Srinivas served as a research scientist at OpenAI for one year until 2022, after which he co-founded the AI search engine Perplexity. His startup has garnered investments from prominent figures such as Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, though it has also faced controversy regarding alleged unethical web scraping practices. Perplexity, headquartered in San Francisco, is currently raising approximately $1 billion at a valuation of $18 billion as of March 2025.
Kyle Kosic — xAI
Kyle Kosic departed OpenAI in 2023 to become a co-founder and infrastructure lead at xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup providing a competing chatbot, Grok. However, in 2024, he returned to OpenAI. Palo Alto-based xAI recently acquired X, previously known as Twitter, assigning the combined entity a valuation of $113 billion. This all-stock transaction garnered attention but represents a potentially advantageous arrangement for those optimistic about Musk’s broader business ventures.
Emmett Shear — Stem AI
Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, briefly served as OpenAI’s interim CEO in November 2023 before Sam Altman’s return. Shear is currently developing his own stealth startup, named Stem AI, as revealed by TechCrunch in 2024. While specific details regarding the company’s operations and fundraising activities remain limited, it has already secured funding from Andreessen Horowitz, signaling confidence in this new AI startup.
Andrej Karpathy — Eureka Labs
Andrej Karpathy, a computer vision expert, was a founding member and research scientist at OpenAI. He later left to join Tesla in 2017, leading its autopilot program. Karpathy is also recognized for his YouTube videos explaining essential AI concepts. He departed from Tesla in 2024 to establish Eureka Labs, an education technology startup based in San Francisco, which is focused on creating AI teaching assistants.
Jeff Arnold — Pilot
Jeff Arnold held the position of head of operations at OpenAI for five months in 2016 before co-founding Pilot, an accounting startup based in San Francisco, in 2017. Pilot, initially concentrating on providing accounting services for startups, last secured $100 million in a Series C funding round in 2021, achieving a valuation of $1.2 billion. The company has attracted investors such as Jeff Bezos. Arnold served as Pilot’s COO until his departure in 2024 to launch a venture capital fund.
David Luan — Adept AI Labs
David Luan served as OpenAI’s engineering VP before leaving in 2020. Following a period at Google, he co-founded Adept AI Labs in 2021, a startup focused on creating AI tools for employees. The company last raised $350 million at a valuation exceeding $1 billion in 2023. However, Luan departed in late 2024 to oversee Amazon’s AI agents lab after Amazon acquired Adept’s founders.
Tim Shi — Cresta
Tim Shi was an early member of OpenAI’s team, focusing on developing safe artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked at OpenAI for one year in 2017 but left to found Cresta, an AI contact center startup based in San Francisco that has secured over $270 million from venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, as stated in a press release.
Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — Covariant
This trio worked at OpenAI as research scientists between 2016 and 2017 before establishing Covariant, a startup based in Berkeley, California, that develops foundational AI models for robots. In 2024, Amazon hired all three Covariant founders and approximately a quarter of its staff. This acquisition was viewed by some as part of a broader trend of Big Tech companies attempting to circumvent antitrust scrutiny.
Maddie Hall — Living Carbon
Maddie Hall worked on “special projects” at OpenAI before leaving in 2019 to co-found Living Carbon, a San Francisco-based startup aiming to create engineered plants capable of absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to combat climate change. Living Carbon raised a $21 million Series A funding round in 2023, bringing its total funding to $36 million, according to a press release.
Shariq Hashme — Prosper Robotics
Shariq Hashme worked at OpenAI for nine months in 2017 on a bot designed to play the video game Dota, according to his LinkedIn profile. Following several years at data-labeling startup Scale AI, he co-founded Prosper Robotics in London in 2021. The startup is developing a robot butler for residential use, aligning with a growing trend in robotics pursued by companies like Norway’s 1X and Texas-based Apptronik.
Jonas Schneider — Daedalus
Jonas Schneider led OpenAI’s software engineering for robotics team prior to leaving in 2019 to co-found Daedalus, which creates advanced factories for precision components. The San Francisco-based startup raised a $21 million Series A funding round last year with support from Khosla Ventures, among others.
Margaret Jennings — Kindo
Margaret Jennings was employed at OpenAI in 2022 and 2023 until she left to co-found Kindo, which markets itself as an AI chatbot for enterprises. Kindo has secured over $27 million in funding, most recently raising a $20.6 million Series A round in 2024. Jennings departed Kindo in 2024 to lead product and research at French AI startup Mistral, according to her LinkedIn profile.