There’s a new tech mafia in Silicon Valley. OpenAI, known for ChatGPT, is emerging as a dominant AI force. The company is reportedly finalizing a $100 billion deal, valuing it at over $850 billion.
Since its inception a decade ago, some former OpenAI employees have launched their own startups, becoming significant competitors or attracting investor interest even without a product.
Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI’s first sales leader, spoke about this network. Like other OpenAI alumni, she became an investor, aiming to leverage connections for deals. Peter Deng, a former head at OpenAI, has similarly transitioned.
Here’s a list of major startups founded by OpenAI alumni, arranged alphabetically:
David Luan — Adept AI Labs
David Luan, OpenAI’s former engineering VP, co-founded Adept AI Labs to build AI tools for employees. The startup raised $350 million in 2023. Luan left in 2024 to lead Amazon’s AI agents lab.
Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman — Anthropic
Dario and Daniela Amodei, alongside OpenAI co-founder John Schulman, created Anthropic in 2021 with an emphasis on AI safety. Anthropic, OpenAI’s rival, recently raised $30 billion, with IPO buzz surrounding it. OpenAI is also eyeing a public listing.
Rhythm Garg, Linden Li, and Yash Patil — Applied Compute
Former OpenAI employees raised $20 million for Applied Compute, focused on custom AI agents for enterprises. Their LinkedIn profiles confirm their departure from OpenAI to launch this startup.
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Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — Covariant
Having worked at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017, these founders started Covariant, developing AI models for robots. In 2024, Amazon incorporated Covariant founders and part of its workforce, a move some saw as a bid to avert antitrust scrutiny.
Tim Shi — Cresta
A former OpenAI team member, Tim Shi founded Cresta focusing on AI for contact centers. They’ve secured over $270 million from prominent VCs.
Jonas Schneider — Daedalus
Jonas Schneider, ex-OpenAI robotics team leader, co-founded Daedalus building precision factories. The company raised $21 million in Series A funding in 2024.
Andrej Karpathy — Eureka Labs
After leaving OpenAI for Tesla, Andrej Karpathy returned to