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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗔𝗜 𝗠𝗮𝗳𝗶𝗮: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 & 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Silicon Valley is built on "𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐚𝐟𝐢𝐚𝐬." A group of brilliant minds works at a breakthrough company. Then, they leave to build their own empires—shaping the future of an entire industry. It happened in the 1950s with the Traitorous Eight, who left Shockley Semiconductor to create Fairchild—and later 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥. It happened in the 1990s with the PayPal Mafia, whose alumni—𝐄𝐥𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐤, 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐥, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐝 𝐇𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐦𝐚𝐧—built companies now worth over $1 trillion. Now, a new mafia has emerged. And it's already controlling the future of AI—while making billions. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗔𝗜 𝗠𝗮𝗳𝗶𝗮: 𝗔𝗜’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 OpenAI started in 2015 with a bold mission: Ensure artificial intelligence benefits humanity. With 𝐒𝐚𝐦 𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐥𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐤 as early backers, they built an elite AI team: 𝐈𝐥𝐲𝐚 𝐒𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 – AI research visionary 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐧 – Reinforcement learning expert 𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢 – Engineering genius 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐀𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐢 – AI safety pioneer Then, everything changed. In 2019, OpenAI 𝐩𝐢𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 “𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝-𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭” 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 to fund its expensive research. By 2024, the company was in turmoil: Microsoft’s $13 billion investment shifted priorities. Internal battles over 𝐀𝐈 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐯𝐬. 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 escalated. OpenAI was losing $5 billion a year, leading to aggressive monetization. The result? A mass 𝐞𝐱𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭—who left to build their own AI giants. 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗔𝗜 𝗠𝗮𝗳𝗶𝗮: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 Just like the PayPal Mafia, these former OpenAI leaders are now shaping the next wave of AI innovation—and making billions in the process: 1- 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 (𝐒𝐒𝐈) Founded by Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s former Chief Scientist. 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: Build the first safe superintelligence. 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: Raised $1B+, valued at $30B+. 2- 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜 Founded by Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s former VP of Research. 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: Create constitutional AI—with built-in safety guardrails. 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: Raised $7.3B+ from Google, Amazon, and others. 3- 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐛 Led by Mira Murati, OpenAI’s former CTO. 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: Enhance human-AI collaboration across industries. 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦: 30+ top researchers—two-thirds from OpenAI. 4- 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐀𝐈 Founded by Aravind Srinivas, a former OpenAI research scientist. 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: Reinvent search with AI-driven direct answers (Google without links). 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: $𝟗𝐁+. 5- 𝐱𝐀𝐈 (𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐤) Founded by Elon Musk, an OpenAI co-founder turned competitor. 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: Build a reasoning-focused AI (Grok 3 just launched). 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: Running on 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲: 𝗔 $𝟭𝟬 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 History shows what happens when a tech mafia forms. The PayPal Mafia didn’t just build companies—they 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬, creating an unstoppable network. The same is happening now. OpenAI alumni are 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐈 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐬, and actively shaping the next generation of artificial intelligence. They aren’t just influencing the future of AI—they are the future of AI. And in the next 10 years? Their network could be worth $10 trillion. Follow Vishu Bheda for more such amazing business and tech insights!