The NVIDIA Mafia — Dealroom

Alumni who left NVIDIA and founded venture-backed startups. 48 startups spanning infrastructure, AI, health. 10 unicorns, 14 countries, $898B+ combined enterprise value. Notable names include OpenAI, Moore Threads, Applied Intuition.

• 48 companies
• 10 unicorns ($1B+)
• $898B combined enterprise value
• 14 countries
• Founded 2008–2025

Companies

1. OpenAI

   Founder: Wojciech Zaremba · Valuation: $852B · Founded 2015 · Sector: AI · HQ: San Francisco, United States

2. Applied Intuition

   Founder: Peter Ludwig · Valuation: $15B · Founded 2017 · Sector: robotics · HQ: Sunnyvale, United States

3. General Intuition

   Founder: Eloi Alonso · Valuation: $6.2B · Founded 2025 · Sector: gaming · HQ: Geneva, Switzerland

4. Ayar Labs

   Founder: Chen Sun · Valuation: $5B · Founded 2015 · Sector: infrastructure · HQ: Santa Clara, United States

5. Tenstorrent

   Founder: Ljubisa Bajic · Valuation: $4B · Founded 2016 · Sector: infrastructure · HQ: Toronto, Canada

6. SiFive

   Founder: Yunsup Lee · Valuation: $3.6B · Founded 2015 · Sector: infrastructure · HQ: San Mateo, United States

7. Celestial AI

   Founder: Michelle Tomasko · Valuation: $3.5B · Founded 2020 · Sector: infrastructure · HQ: Sunnyvale, United States

8. Black Forest Labs

   Founder: Axel Sauer · Valuation: $3.3B · Founded 2024 · Sector: AI · HQ: Freiburg, Germany

9. Butterfly Network

   Founder: Nevada Sanchez · Valuation: $2.3B · Founded 2011 · Sector: health · HQ: Guilford, United States

10. Xreal

    Founder: Chi Xu · Valuation: $1B · Founded 2017 · Sector: consumer · HQ: Beijing, China

11. Genesis AI

    Founder: Yi Ling Qiao · Valuation: $420M · Founded 2024 · Sector: robotics · HQ: Paris, France

12. Jerry Insurance

    Founder: Musawir Shah · Valuation: $352M · Founded 2017 · Sector: fintech · HQ: Palo Alto, United States

13. Flexion Robotics

    Founder: David Hoeller · Valuation: $200M · Founded 2025 · Sector: robotics · HQ: Zurich, Switzerland

14. Nomagic

    Founder: Marek Cygan · Valuation: $176M · Founded 2017 · Sector: robotics · HQ: Warsaw, Poland

15. Five AI

    Founder: Jonathan Lucas · Valuation: $132M · Founded 2015 · Sector: AI · HQ: Cambridge, United Kingdom

16. Vsim

    Founder: Kier Storey · Valuation: $100M · Founded 2022 · Sector: AI · HQ: Altrincham, United Kingdom

17. Voltron Data

    Founder: Joshua Patterson · Valuation: $88M · Founded 2021 · Sector: AI · HQ: Mountain View, United States

18. Blaize

    Founder: Satyaki Koneru · Valuation: $50M · Founded 2010 · Sector: infrastructure · HQ: El Dorado Hills, United States

19. LightUp

    Founder: Tarun Pondicherry · Valuation: $36M · Founded 2013 · Sector: AI · HQ: Stanford, United States

20. Cygni Energy Private Limited

    Founder: Venkat Rajaraman · Valuation: $32M · Founded 2015 · Sector: infrastructure · HQ: Hyderabad, India

21. Exabel

    Founder: Øyvind Grotmol · Valuation: $24M · Founded 2016 · Sector: fintech · HQ: Oslo, Norway

22. FitBudd

    Founder: Pranav Chaturvedi · Valuation: $14M · Founded 2020 · Sector: health · HQ: Lewes, United States

23. Omnevue

    Founder: Andrew Winnicki · Valuation: $12M · Founded 2021 · Sector: AI · HQ: Eastbourne, United Kingdom

24. Myko AI

    Founder: Zheng Li · Valuation: $11M · Founded 2020 · Sector: AI · HQ: Miami, United States

25. PredictionIO

    Founder: Donald Szeto · Valuation: $10M · Founded 2013 · Sector: AI · HQ: Stanford, United States

26. AlgoBulls

    Founder: Pushpak Jainn Dagade · Valuation: $8M · Founded 2019 · Sector: fintech · HQ: Mumbai, India

27. TrueNorth

    Founder: Alex Lee · Valuation: $4M · Founded 2025 · Sector: infrastructure · HQ: Taipei, Taiwan

28. MetaNovas Biotech

    Founder: Meijie Wang · Founded 2021 · Sector: health · HQ: Pudong, China

29. KiWi New Energy

    Founder: Steve Huang · Founded 2017 · Sector: infrastructure · HQ: Taipei, Taiwan

30. Gryphon Online Safety

    Founder: Arup Bhattacharya · Founded 2014 · Sector: security · HQ: Oceanside, United States

Data by Dealroom.co