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.  

Many employees have come and gone since the company first launched a decade ago, and some have launched startups of their own. Among these, some have become top rivals (like Anthropic), while others, just on investor interest alone, have managed to raise billions without even launching a product (see, Thinking Machine Labs).  

In January, Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI’s first sales leader, spoke a little bit about this growing network. She, like the other OpenAI alums who did not become founders, decided to become an investor and said she was going to tap into the ex-OpenAI founder network to look for deal flow. We know Peter Deng, OpenAI’s former head of consumer products (and now general partner at Felicis) already has.  

Below is a roundup of the major startups founded by OpenAI alumni, in alphabetical order. And we are certain this list will grow over time. 

David Luan — Adept AI Labs 

David Luan was OpenAI’s engineering VP until he left in 2020. After a stint at Google, in 2021 he co-founded Adept AI Labs, a startup that builds AI tools for employees. The startup last raised $350 million at a valuation north of $1 billion in 2023, but Luan left in late 2024 to oversee Amazon’s AI agents lab after Amazon hired Adept’s founders.

Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman — Anthropic

Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei left OpenAI in 2021 to form their own startup, San Francisco-based Anthropic, that has long touted a focus on AI safety. OpenAI co-founder John Schulman joined Anthropic in 2024, pledging to build a “safe AGI.” The company has since become OpenAI’s biggest rival and just raised a $30 billion Series G, nabbing a $380 billion valuation in the process. IPO rumors are also swirling, as the company reportedly prepares for a public listing that could come sometime this year. (OpenAI is also allegedly preparing for an IPO this year and is maybe even trying to beat Anthropic to the public market.) 

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

Three ex-OpenAI staffers (Rhythm Garg, Linden Li, and Yash Patil) have reportedly raised $20 million for a startup called Applied Compute, as reported by Upstart Media. All three of them worked as technical staff at OpenAI for more than a year before leaving last May to launch the startup, per their LinkedIns. The startup helps enterprises train and deploy custom AI agents. Benchmark led the round, valuing the 10-month-old company at $100 million, Upstart Media reported. 

Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — Covariant

The trio all worked at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017 as research scientists before founding Covariant, a Berkeley, California-based startup that builds foundation AI models for robots. In 2024, Amazon hired all three of the Covariant founders and about a quarter of its staff. The quasi-acquisition was viewed by some as part of a broader trend of Big Tech attempting to avoid antitrust scrutiny. 

Tim Shi — Cresta 

Tim Shi was an early member of OpenAI’s team, where he focused on building safe artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked at OpenAI for a year in 2017 but left to found Cresta, a San Francisco-based AI contact center startup that has raised over $270 million from VCs like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others, according to a press release.

Jonas Schneider — Daedalus

Jonas Schneider led OpenAI’s software engineering for robotics team but left in 2019 to co-found Daedalus, which builds advanced factories for precision components. The San Francisco-based startup raised a $21 million Series A last year with backing from Khosla Ventures, among others.

Andrej Karpathy — Eureka Labs

Computer vision expert Andrej Karpathy was a founding member and research scientist at OpenAI, leaving the startup to join Tesla in 2017 to lead its autopilot program. Karpathy is also well-known for his YouTube videos explaining core AI concepts. He left Tesla in 2024 to found his own education technology startup, Eureka Labs, a San Francisco-based startup that is building AI teaching assistants.

Margaret Jennings — Kindo

Margaret Jennings worked at OpenAI in 2022 and 2023 until she left to co-found Kindo, which markets itself as an AI chatbot for enterprises. Kindo has raised over $27 million in funding, last raising a $20.6 million Series A in 2024. Jennings left Kindo in 2024 to head product and research at French AI startup Mistral, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Maddie Hall — Living Carbon

Maddie Hall worked on “special projects” at OpenAI but left in 2019 to co-found Living Carbon, a San Francisco-based startup that aims to create engineered plants that can suck more carbon out of the sky to fight climate change. Living Carbon raised a $21 million Series A round in 2023, bringing its total funding until then to $36 million, according to a press release.

Liam Fedus — Periodic Labs  

Liam Fedus, OpenAI’s VP of post-training research, left the company in March 2025 to team up with his former Google Brain colleague, Ekin Dogus Cubuk, and launch Periodic Labs. The startup seeks to use AI scientists to find new materials, particularly new superconducting materials. It came out of stealth mode in September 2025, armed with a massive $300 million in seed-round funding with backers that included Jezz Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Felicis and Andreessen Horowitz. 

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 search engine Perplexity. His startup has attracted a string of high-profile investors like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, although it’s also caused controversy over alleged unethical web scraping. Perplexity, which is based in San Francisco, last reported a raise of $200 million at a $20 billion valuation. 

Jeff Arnold — Pilot

Jeff Arnold worked as OpenAI’s head of operations for five months in 2016 before co-founding San Francisco-based accounting startup Pilot in 2017. Pilot, which focused initially on doing accounting for startups, last raised a $100 million Series C in 2021 at a $1.2 billion valuation and has attracted investors like Jeff Bezos. Arnold worked as Pilot’s COO until leaving in 2024 to launch a VC fund.

Shariq Hashme — Prosper Robotics

Shariq Hashme worked for OpenAI for 9 months in 2017 on a bot that could play the popular video game 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 startup says it’s working on a robot butler for people’s homes, a hot trend in robotics that other players like Norway’s 1X and Texas-based Apptronik are also working on.

Ilya Sutskever — Safe Superintelligence 

OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI in May 2024 after he was reportedly part of a failed effort to replace CEO Sam Altman. Shortly afterward, he co-founded Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, with “one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence,” he says. Details about what exactly the startup is up to are scant: It has no product and no revenue yet. But investors are clamoring for a piece anyway, and it’s been able to raise $2 billion, with its latest valuation reportedly rising to $32 billion this month. SSI is based in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Emmett Shear — Stem AI

Emmett Shear is the former CEO of Twitch who was OpenAI’s interim CEO in November 2023 for a few days before Sam Altman rejoined the company. Shear launched an AI company, StemAI, in 2024 (though it seems to have since rebranded as Softmax). The company, which appears to be a research company, has attracted funding from Andreessen Horowitz.

Mira Murati — Thinking Machines Lab 

Mira Murati, OpenAI’s CTO, left OpenAI to found her own company, Thinking Machines Lab, which emerged from stealth in February 2025. It said at the time (rather vaguely) that it will build AI that’s more “customizable” and “capable.” The San Francisco AI startup, now valued at $12 billion, announced its first product late last year: an API that fine-tunes language models. It recently made headlines when two of its co-founders announced earlier this year that they would return to OpenAI. 

Kyle Kosic — xAI

Kyle Kosic left OpenAI in 2023 to become a co-founder and infrastructure lead of xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup that offers a rival chatbot, Grok. In 2024, however, he hopped back to OpenAI, where he remains. Meanwhile, xAI (which acquired Musk’s social media site X) was purchased by Musk’s SpaceX, giving the coalesce company a valuation of $1.25 trillion. It is looking to go public sometime in June for what could be a historic listing. 

Angela Jiang — Worktrace AI

Angela Jiang left OpenAI in 2024, after working as a product manager and on the public policy team. In April 2025, she quietly launched Worktrace, which uses AI to help enterprises make business operations more efficient. It observes employee work patterns and automates workflow, according to the company’s website. The business is backed by Mura Murati, OpenAI’s former CTO, who went on to launch Thinking Labs. It is also backed by OpenAI’s startup fund, in addition to a slew of other OpenAI names, like its chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon. 

Stealth Startups

In addition to these startups, a number of other former OpenAI employees have founded startups that are still in stealth mode, according to various updates TechCrunch found on LinkedIn. For instance, it seems that former OpenAI researcher Danilo Hellermark has been working on a generative AI stealth startup for the past few years. He officially left OpenAI at the beginning of 2023. There’s also one apparently in the works from Lucas Negritto, who worked on OpenAI’s technical team and left the company in 2023 after three years. Since then, he’s founded one startup and has been working on another since August 2025, according to his LinkedIn. 

OpenAI seems to have found product-market fit with young Indians. The company said on Friday that users between 18 and 24 years of age accounted for nearly 50% of messages sent to ChatGPT in the country, and users under 30 accounted for 80%.

The AI lab said Indians use ChatGPT mostly for work, with 35% of all messages relating to professional tasks, compared to 30% globally.

In particular, the company’s coding assistant, Codex, is seeing strong traction: OpenAI said Indians use Codex three times more than the global median, and weekly usage has increased by four times since the tool got a Mac app two weeks ago. Users in India are also asking three times as many coding-related questions as the median.

This is in line with findings from Antropic, which earlier this week said 45.2% of Claude’s tasks map to software-related use cases in India.

OpenAI said outside of work tasks, 35% of messages to ChatGPT from Indians requested guidance, 20% concerned questions about general information, and 20% were requests for the bot to produce or help with writing.

India is OpenAI’s second-largest market with more than 100 million weekly users, and the company has been actively trying to court Indians for its AI tools and services. The company offers a sub-$5 subscription tier in the country, and last year even ran promotional campaigns to spur adoption.

“AI adoption is moving faster than our ability to measure it – and that’s a challenge for anyone trying to make smart decisions. Signals is our way of putting real-world evidence on the table, so India’s AI debate can be grounded in facts, not hype,” OpenAI’s chief economist Ronnie Chatterji said in a statement.

OpenAI has had a busy few days in India, which is hosting a major AI Impact Summit in New Delhi this week. The company is opening new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru this year, and has signed a major partnership with conglomerate Tata Group to secure 100 megawatts worth of AI compute capacity and distribute ChatGPT Enterprise within Tata’s IT services subsidiary, TCS.

The AI lab has signed agreements with fintech Pine Labs, travel platforms Ixigo and Makemytrip, and food and grocery delivery company Eternal. It has also partnered with educational institutes to distribute its tools to more than 100,000 students over the next six years.

This week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in a landmark social media trial, claiming the company only wanted to make Instagram “useful” and not addictive. In this episode, we chat about Zuck’s testimony and the potential implications of this trial for social media companies. Also, we dive into the latest effects of the RAMaggedon RAM shortage, including a potential PlayStation 6 delay and a dire future for practically every consumer electronics company.

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Topics

• Mark Zuckerberg testifies that Instagram was meant to be “useful,” not addictive in social media addiction trial – 1:27

• Meta reportedly plans to launch a smartwatch later this year – 13:23

• The RAMageddon will likely kill some small consumer electronics companies – 15:54

• Apple could unveil a MacBook, new M5 Pro chip, and iPhone 17e at March 4th event – 26:26

• Google’s Pixel 10a arrives on March 5 – 32:17

• Email leaked to 404 media suggests Ring had plans to use its Search Party function for wider surveillance – 34:48

• Pop culture picks – 49:04

Credits

Host: Devindra Hardawar
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

Microsoft is bringing Copilot to the Windows 11 taskbar and File Explorer. The update turns the plain old search box into something that actually understands how you ask questions. Type “When is my performance review due?” and the system pulls the answer from your calendar, emails, and local files. No more digging through folders.

The taskbar becomes a kind of mission control for AI. The search field now connects your local PC with your Microsoft 365 data. It knows who you work with and what documents you touch most.

The taskbar is now a command center for AI agents

Hit the @ symbol in the taskbar search and you get a menu of AI agents that run in the background. These aren’t the kind that disappear into browser tabs. They sit on your taskbar so you can see their progress while you do other stuff. A researcher agent might spend 10 minutes comparing public sentiment against internal design guides. You watch its status on the taskbar icon like a download bar. Green checkmark means it’s done. Hover for a summary. Click for the full report with sources.

Voice works too. Hold the Copilot key or hit Windows key + C. Tell it “Find the file Robin shared” and it checks your emails and meetings to figure out which Robin you mean.

File Explorer gets Copilot Control for instant document insights

File Explorer now shows your SharePoint and OneDrive files right alongside local ones. Recent docs, shared stuff, favorites, all in one view. But the Copilot Control is the real trick. You can ask questions about a file without opening it.

Need a stat buried deep in a design doc? Ask for it. Copilot pulls out something like “over 70% of employees prefer sustainable materials” and shows you the context immediately. You never leave the File Explorer window.

Over on Android, Google is doing something similar with its Files app. Gemini now automatically offers to analyze PDFs when you open them, letting you ask questions about a document without importing it into a separate AI tool.

What this means for your workflow

The updates are rolling out now. Which ones you get depends on your hardware. Standard Windows 11 machines handle the cloud stuff. Copilot+ PCs with NPUs unlock the offline tools like Fluid Dictation and Click to Do.

Bottom line? You search less and find more. The taskbar starts acting like a coworker who remembers where everything lives. File Explorer becomes a window into your documents, not just a list of folders. Keep an eye out for the Copilot icons in the coming weeks.

After a winter that still refuses to end with record-breaking cold, snow stacked on top of more snow, and the uncomfortable realization that even escaping to the Florida Keys in late-January didn’t feel like enough distance, Audioengine has decided to change the mood. The company just announced its 2026 Color of the Year: Limoncello Yellow, a limited-edition high-gloss finish rolled out across a complete, coordinated listening system created with Crosley.

Call it seasonal defiance. After an industry-wide 2025 where color quietly became the most obvious form of innovation, Audioengine is leaning hard into the idea that design matters when your gear lives in the open and not buried in a rack.

Instead of slapping a fresh coat of paint on one product and calling it a launch, Audioengine went all in. Limoncello Yellow spans the A2+ Home Music System, S6 Subwoofer, DS1M speaker stands, and the Crosley C6 turntable, all finished to match. The result looks intentional rather than improvised; bright without being gimmicky, and perfectly timed for anyone who has seen enough gray skies to last a lifetime. Spring can’t get here fast enough.

And while we’re at it, would it be too much to ask for someone to pass the Limoncello? Not the sad, sugary stuff they sell at the Venice airport, but the real kind that actually takes the edge off while you’re staring across a stone courtyard at Nicole Grimaudo and briefly forgetting that winter still has you in a headlock.

If Audioengine can’t fix the weather, at least they can fix the mood. And honestly, that’s progress.

Each Audioengine product in the collection uses real wood cabinets finished through a 13-step, piano-grade painting process. That means sealing, layered color application, curing, hand polishing, and final inspection done the slow way, because shortcuts show. The same high-gloss finish is applied across the A2+ Home Music System, S6 Subwoofer, and DS1M speaker stands, so the color actually matches instead of playing “close enough” under different lighting.

The Back Story

When Audioengine first introduced the A2 Powered Speaker System, it was conceived as a true desktop audio solution; compact enough to sit comfortably beside a computer monitor, measuring only slightly taller than a modern iPhone, yet capable of delivering sound that felt far larger than its footprint suggested.

Back in 2007, that idea wasn’t obvious or common. Dedicated desktop speaker systems barely existed, and most compact speakers were designed to be accessories for larger hi-fi rigs, not standalone solutions. If you wanted better sound at a desk, you usually gave up space, added boxes, or both. The A2 flipped that logic, proving that a small, self-contained system could be practical, intentional, and good enough to live on a desktop without apology.

The goal of Audioengine was to design a desktop audio speaker solution that would provide more than what was expected. As a result of their efforts, the A2 and A2+ have enjoyed the success that inspired Audioengine to provide additional high-performance compact speaker systems such as the A5+, HD3, HD4, HD5, HD6, A1-MR, and more. 

Audioengine A2+ Home Music System

The Audioengine A2+ Home Music System ($279 at Amazon) is a compact, powered speaker system designed for desks, shelves, and smaller rooms where space is tight but expectations aren’t. Each speaker delivers 20 watts RMS per channel into 4 ohms, with 30 watts peak, for a total of 60 watts peak output. That’s more than enough for nearfield listening, apartments, or office setups without pretending it’s trying to replace a full-size system.

Connectivity is straightforward and flexible. Bluetooth 5.3 is on board with support for aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, standard aptX, AAC, and SBC, so wireless playback works well whether you’re on Android, iOS, or a laptop. Wireless range stretches to about 100 feet (30 meters) under good conditions, which is genuinely useful unless you’re trying to stream through walls. For wired sources, you get USB-C digital audio supporting up to 24-bit/96kHz, plus RCA and 3.5mm analog inputs, making it easy to connect computers, streamers, turntables with built-in phono stages, or just about anything else with an output.

Digital conversion is handled by a PCM5100A DAC, chosen for reliability and clean performance. Noise and distortion stay well under control, with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 95 dB and THD+N below 0.05 percent at all power levels. Frequency response runs from 65 Hz to 22 kHz, which is realistic for a speaker this size and pairs naturally with a subwoofer like Audioengine’s S6 if you want more low-end weight.

Driver duties are handled by 2.75-inch aramid fiber woofers and 0.75-inch silk dome tweeters with neodymium magnets, tuned for clarity and balance rather than artificial hype. Protection circuits cover output current, thermal limits, and power on or off transients, so the system behaves itself even when pushed.

Physically, each speaker measures 6 x 4 x 5.25 inches (H x W x D), which explains why the A2+ works so well on desks without turning into visual clutter. In the Limoncello Yellow edition, those real wood cabinets go through Audioengine’s 13-step, piano-grade finishing process, resulting in a deep, high-gloss surface that actually holds up over time.

Audioengine S6 Compact Subwoofer

The Audioengine S6 Compact Subwoofer ($299 at Amazon) is designed for small spaces and compact systems, and yes—it actually works on a desk. Measuring 10 x 8.7 x 10 inches and weighing just over 15 pounds, it fits under or beside a desk without getting in the way, something we’ve done ourselves without regret.

A front-firing 6-inch driver in a sealed cabinet is powered by a Class D amplifier rated at 140 watts RMS (210 watts peak), delivering controlled bass down to 33 Hz. Adjustable volume, crossover (40-130 Hz), and phase (0-180 degrees) controls make it easy to integrate with small powered speakers or compact systems from Audioengine and other brands.

Connectivity is straightforward with RCA/LFE and 3.5 mm inputs, and while the S6 isn’t wireless by default, it can be made wireless using Audioengine’s W3 transmitter/receiver kit ($149). Power consumption drops below 1 watt at idle thanks to auto-sensing standby, and the 15 mm MDF cabinet keeps things solid without adding bulk. It’s a practical subwoofer for desks, apartments, and small rooms where space matters as much as sound.

Crosley C6 Turntable

The Crosley C6 Turntable is a manual, two-speed record player built around a straightforward analog design. It uses an audio-grade MDF plinth paired with a heavy steel platter to provide a stable platform for vinyl playback. A belt-driven, low-vibration motor sits beneath the platter and supports 33-1/3 and 45 RPM records, keeping operation simple and consistent without automation getting in the way.

Setup is hands-on but not complicated. The tonearm features an adjustable counterweight and anti-skate, and the table comes with a pre-mounted Audio-Technica cartridge, so you’re not starting from scratch. Connectivity is flexible, with a built-in, switchable phono preamp for direct connection to powered speakers or integrated amplifiers, along with RCA outputs for systems that already have a phono stage. Bluetooth is also built in for wireless playback when convenience matters more than cabling.

The C6 isn’t trying to be clever or overdesigned. It’s a clean, manual turntable that fits neatly into compact systems, especially paired with powered speakers, and does its job without demanding constant attention. In the Limoncello Yellow finish, it adds visual cohesion to the setup while keeping the focus where it belongs—on playing records.

The Bottom Line

What you’re buying here is a cohesive compact system that handles both analog and digital sources without setup issues. The Audioengine A2+ speakers are a time-tested design that many audiophiles and more than a few hi-fi editors still rely on for desktops and secondary systems because they’re consistent, balanced, and easy to live with. They’re only “underrated” by people who haven’t lived with them.

This setup is for listeners who want vinyl, streaming, and computer audio in one small footprint for desks, offices, apartments, or second systems where space matters but sound still counts. Add the S6 for low-end support and the Crosley C6 for analog playback, and you get a system that covers real-world listening needs without excess, complexity, or pretending to be a full-scale hi-fi rig.

Where to buy:

Related Reading:

• Proofpoint uncovered fake RMM tool “TrustConnect” built as cover for RAT malware
• Criminals created website, paid for certificate, tricking firms into $300/month subscriptions
• Tool gave attackers full remote control; linked to Redline infostealer customer

A group of cybercriminals went to great lengths to infect businesses with a remote access trojan (RAT), setting up an entire company, vibe-coding a website, and paying thousands for a legitimate certificate.

In its report, Proofpoint said it was fairly common for cybercriminals to use legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools in their tech stack. They would trick their victims into installing their tool of choice and sharing login credentials which would enable them to deploy all sorts of stage-two malware, including infostealers, remote access trojans, or ransomware.

Douglas Trumbull’s 1972 sci-fi film appeared just as space tales were becoming increasingly cold and remote. Silent Running changed that by firmly rooting its futuristic vision in the kind of realistic, beat-up features found in everyday life. On board the Valley Forge, a gigantic converted cargo based on a real, retired aircraft carrier, the sets appeared to be in constant use. The pipes, consoles, and congested halls appeared practical rather than sleek. This method lured the viewer into a world that seemed plausible, one in which technology serviced human needs rather than the other way around.

Trumbull, who had recently completed the psychadelic effects work on 2001: A Space Odyssey, simply wanted to warm things up. He directed his debut picture with a strong emphasis on connecting with the characters on an emotional level. Bruce Dern plays Freeman Lowell, a botanist tasked with caring for the last of Earth’s trees, which happen to be floating in geodesic domes in space. When orders are issued to burn them down, Lowell takes great measures to do the right thing and save the flora. He has some unexpected assistance in the form of three small maintenance drones, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who become his crew. Actors with amputations wore custom suits, so the machines all looked awkward and endearingly jerky in their movements, giving them a feeling of personality without the use of words.

Those little drones created an effect, and George Lucas even drew influence from them while designing R2-D2. The idea of a little, expressive robot that communicates through beeps and body language rather than words originated with the Silent Running helpers. Lucas even secured Trumbull’s permission to create a comparable figure. R2-D2 exudes the same quiet commitment, transforming a tool into a friend.

Not only did the robots have an impact, but the film’s visual language was also highly significant. Trumbull’s team created these extremely accurate miniatures with genuine texture and hundreds of model kit parts mixed together for surface detail, then shot them using a variety of unique approaches. John Dykstra, a young effects artist on Silent Running, went on to manage the special effects team for Star Wars. He introduced motion control photography and a dynamic camera approach, making spaceships feel alive during dogfights. Many of the personnel from Trumbull’s workshop ended up joining ILM, bringing some of the practical model work and devotion to realism with them.

Star Wars captured that lived-in feel on board, with spaceships displaying signs of wear, filth, and maintenance. The interiors felt industrial and utilitarian, similar to the Valley Forge’s carrier-inspired designs. The Death Star’s huge, metallic halls provide the same feeling of scale and function. This trend away from clean, polished futures and toward ones that were torn and worn became the genre’s new standard.

Many other films followed suit, such as Alien, which adopted the gritty, no-nonsense appearance of a working-class spaceship with crew members whining about wages and conditions. Blade Runner expanded the detailed, evocative surroundings. WALL-E paid respect by depicting a lonely robot maintaining a fragile plant in a destroyed planet. Even Interstellar and Avatar continue the environmental concern that Silent Running raised, highlighting our duty to nature in the face of technological advancement.
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