Tech elites leave success for AI startups, joining Anthropic en masse
Tech entrepreneurs are transitioning to AI startups, motivated by the fear of missing out on the AI revolution. On Monday, Tom Blomfield, who co-founded GoCardless and Monzo, revealed he is joining Anthropic's compute team. In 2024, Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram, took on the role of Chief Product Officer at Anthropic. In May, Andrej Karpathy, a founding member of OpenAI, became part of Anthropic's pre-training team. Chamath Palihapitiya assumed the role of CEO at 8090 Labs, an AI coding startup, announcing a $135 million Series A round led by Salesforce Ventures. Eric Wu introduced NavigateAI for construction workers, backed by $25 million in seed funding. Peter Bailis joined Anthropic in March after departing from Workday as CTO.
Key facts
- Tom Blomfield left Y Combinator to join Anthropic's compute team as a member of technical staff.
- Mike Krieger joined Anthropic as Chief Product Officer in 2024.
- Andrej Karpathy joined Anthropic's pre-training team in May 2026.
- Chamath Palihapitiya became CEO of 8090 Labs, raising $135 million from Salesforce Ventures.
- Eric Wu launched NavigateAI with $25 million in seed funding.
- Peter Bailis left Workday CTO role to join Anthropic as member of technical staff in March 2026.
- Anthropic and OpenAI use the flat title 'member of technical staff' for technical roles.
- The trend reflects fear of missing AI's defining moment and desire for more wealth.
Entities
Artists
- Tom Blomfield
- Mike Krieger
- Andrej Karpathy
- Chamath Palihapitiya
- Eric Wu
- Peter Bailis
Institutions
- Anthropic
- OpenAI
- Y Combinator
- GoCardless
- Monzo
- Tesla
- Eureka Labs
- 8090 Labs
- Salesforce Ventures
- NavigateAI
- Opendoor
- Workday