Move over, PayPal Mafia — Silicon Valley has a new tech dynasty. As the company behind ChatGPT, OpenAI’s explosive growth to a $300 billion valuation has sparked a new wave of alumni-founded startups, some attracting billions in investment without even launching a product yet.
From AI safety ventures to carbon-capturing plants and even robot butlers, the “OpenAI Mafia” is reshaping tech across multiple industries. Here’s a look at 15 of the most notable companies founded by former OpenAI employees.
Anthropic – Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, John Schulman
Founded by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei and later joined by John Schulman, Anthropic is OpenAI’s biggest direct rival. Focused on AI safety, the San Francisco-based company was valued at $61.5 billion in March 2025.
Safe Superintelligence – Ilya Sutskever
After departing OpenAI, co-founder Ilya Sutskever launched Safe Superintelligence (SSI) with the single goal of creating a safe superintelligent AI. Despite no product yet, SSI has already achieved a stunning $32 billion valuation.
Thinking Machines Lab – Mira Murati
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati founded this AI startup focused on making artificial intelligence more “customizable and capable.” It’s already raising a $2 billion seed round despite having no launched product.
Perplexity – Aravind Srinivas
A former OpenAI research scientist, Aravind Srinivas built Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine attracting major investors like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia. It’s currently raising funds at an $18 billion valuation.
xAI – Kyle Kosic
Kyle Kosic, once an infrastructure lead at OpenAI, joined Elon Musk’s xAI, the company behind Grok and now the owner of X (formerly Twitter), valued at $113 billion.
Stem AI – Emmett Shear
Emmett Shear, briefly OpenAI’s interim CEO, is now leading a stealthy new venture called Stem AI, backed by Andreessen Horowitz.
Eureka Labs – Andrej Karpathy
AI educator and Tesla’s former Autopilot lead Andrej Karpathy founded Eureka Labs, which is creating AI teaching assistants for the education sector.
Pilot – Jeff Arnold
OpenAI’s former head of operations Jeff Arnold co-founded accounting platform Pilot, which attracted Jeff Bezosamong its investors and was last valued at $1.2 billion.
Adept AI Labs – David Luan
After stints at OpenAI and Google, David Luan founded Adept AI Labs, building AI tools for office workers. Adept raised $350 million before Luan joined Amazon in 2024.
Cresta – Tim Shi
Former OpenAI team member Tim Shi co-founded Cresta, an AI-enhanced customer service company that has raised over $270 million.
Covariant – Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, Rocky Duan
Three former OpenAI researchers launched Covariant, which builds robotic AI models. Amazon later hired the founders and a quarter of Covariant’s staff.
Living Carbon – Maddie Hall
Ex-OpenAI special projects lead Maddie Hall co-founded Living Carbon, engineering plants to fight climate change, backed by $36 million in funding.
Prosper Robotics – Shariq Hashme
Shariq Hashme went from OpenAI to founding Prosper Robotics in London, aiming to create robot butlers for homes.
Daedalus – Jonas Schneider
Former OpenAI robotics software engineer Jonas Schneider launched Daedalus, which builds AI-enhanced precision factories. The company raised $21 million in Series A funding.
Kindo – Margaret Jennings
After a brief tenure at OpenAI, Margaret Jennings co-founded Kindo, an enterprise AI chatbot startup, before joining French AI player Mistral.
