Andy Konwinski, cofounder of Databricks and Perplexity, is a computer scientist and investor focused on AI, data infrastructure, and research-driven startups. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science at UC Berkeley, where he contributed to Apache Hadoop and co-created Apache Mesos and Apache Spark. He later cofounded Laude Ventures and Laude Institute, including a $100 million commitment to support AI researchers.

Johnny Ho, cofounder and chief strategy officer of Perplexity, helps lead product at the AI search company. Before Perplexity, he worked as a high-frequency trader at Tower Research Capital and as an engineer at Quora. A Harvard math and computer science graduate, Ho was also a three-time gold medalist at the International Olympiad in Informatics, ranking first in the world in 2012 with a perfect score.

Denis Yarats, cofounder and CTO of Perplexity, previously worked at Microsoft, Quora, and Facebook AI Research. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from NYU and has research experience in machine learning and reinforcement learning. At Perplexity, he helped build the company’s AI answer engine, which combines large language models with real-time, source-backed search.

Aravind Srinivas, cofounder and CEO of Perplexity, has become one of the most visible challengers to Google in the AI search race. Born in Chennai and trained at IIT Madras and UC Berkeley, he worked at OpenAI, Google, and DeepMind before launching Perplexity in 2022 with Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. The company built its reputation around citation-backed answers rather than traditional search links, reaching a reported $20 billion valuation in 2025 and making Srinivas one of the standout founders of the generative AI boom.

Christopher Olah, Anthropic cofounder and one of AI’s most influential interpretability researchers, has built his reputation by trying to open the black box of neural networks. After pioneering key work on neural network visualization and mechanistic interpretability at Google Brain and OpenAI, he helped launch Anthropic in 2021, where his research has become central to the company’s safety-first approach to advanced AI systems. As Anthropic’s influence has surged, Olah has emerged as one of the most important technical minds shaping how frontier AI is understood—not just built.

Sam McCandlish, Anthropic cofounder and former chief technology officer, helped build one of the defining companies of the generative AI era while shaping the technical foundations behind Claude and Anthropic’s broader safety-driven approach to frontier models. A theoretical physicist by training and former OpenAI researcher, he became known for influential work on AI scaling and compute, then played a central role in Anthropic’s rise from high-conviction startup to one of the world’s most valuable AI companies. He later moved into the role of chief architect, underscoring his importance as one of the key technical minds behind Anthropic’s long-term direction.

Jack Clark, Anthropic cofounder and Head of Public Benefit, has become one of the most influential figures at the intersection of frontier AI, policy, and public communication. A former technology journalist turned AI executive, he helped build Anthropic into one of the defining companies of the generative AI era while shaping its voice on safety, governance, and societal impact. Known for translating complex technical progress into strategic public arguments, Clark stands out as one of the sector’s clearest policy-minded operators.

Jared Kaplan, cofounder and chief science officer of Anthropic, has become one of the central technical figures in the generative AI boom, helping build the company behind Claude into a major force in large language models. A theoretical physicist by training and former OpenAI researcher, he is known for influential work on the scaling behavior of AI systems and for pairing frontier model development with a strong emphasis on safety and governance. As Anthropic’s influence has expanded, Kaplan has emerged as one of the key scientists shaping the next era of artificial intelligence.

Tom Brown, cofounder and chief compute officer of Anthropic, helped build one of the defining companies of the generative AI era after earlier playing a key role in the engineering behind GPT-3 at OpenAI. At Anthropic, he has been central to the compute infrastructure powering Claude and the company’s broader push to develop powerful AI systems with a strong emphasis on safety and reliability. With deep technical credibility and a low public profile, Brown has emerged as one of the key architects behind Anthropic’s rise.

Dario Amodei, cofounder and CEO of Anthropic, has emerged as one of the central architects of the generative AI era, building the company behind Claude into a major force in safe, high-performance artificial intelligence. A former OpenAI research leader who helped advance large language models and reinforcement learning from human feedback, he has paired technical credibility with a strong public stance on AI safety, governance, and long-term societal risk. As Anthropic’s valuation and influence have surged, Amodei has become one of the most consequential figures shaping the future of AI.