The rise of ex-Google employees in the AI startup scene is a significant trend, with more than a dozen top A.I. companies led by former Google employees, receiving a combined valuation of $71.6 billion and raising a cumulative $14.7 billion.
The Rise of Ex-Google Employees in the A.I. Startup Scene
More than a dozen of this year’s top A.I. companies are led by former Google employees, according to an analysis from Writerbuddy.
These startups have received a combined valuation of $71.6 billion and raised a cumulative $14.7 billion, representing 28 percent of the total funding for the world’s top 50 A.I. startups. This is a significant trend in the A.I. industry, with many of these companies focusing on building A.I. infrastructure and models.
The Top-Valued A.I. Startups Led by Ex-Google Employees
One of the highest-valued A.I. startups led by an ex-Googler is Anthropic, an OpenAI rival known for its Claude family of A.I. models. Co-founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei, a former senior research scientist at Google between 2015 and 2016, Anthropic has raised $9.7 billion over the past three years.
Another notable startup is Perplexity AI, which was co-founded by Aravind Srinivas, who previously interned at Google and Google DeepMind between 2019 and 2021. The A.I.-search focused startup was established in 2022 and is valued at $9 billion.
The Connection to OpenAI
Interestingly, many of these ex-Google employees have also worked at OpenAI. For example, Dario Amodei worked as vice president of research before leaving in 2020 to found Anthropic. Aravind Srinivas served as an OpenAI research scientist between 2021 and 2022.
This connection is not surprising, given the close relationship between Google and OpenAI. Many researchers have moved back and forth between these companies, contributing to the development of A.I. technology.
The State of A.I. Investments
The debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 spurred a frenzy of A.I. investments. Last year, the top 50 A.I. companies managed to raise $20.7 billion, representing a 600 percent increase year-over-year. This year’s A.I. investments are already nearly on par with last year’s total.
Money is pouring into companies focused on building A.I. infrastructure and models, which accounts for two-thirds of the $52.8 billion raised by the top 50 A.I. startups this year. Data and analytics, an area that includes players like Databricks and Scale AI, has a more than 11 percent share, while defense and security efforts have attracted around 7 percent of funding.
Conclusion
The rise of ex-Google employees in the A.I. startup scene is a significant trend in the industry. With many of these companies focused on building A.I. infrastructure and models, it will be interesting to see how this trend continues in the coming years.
