This week’s stories are about tech, AI, startups and sustainability, coming from India and the USA
OpenAI Mafia launched 18 AI startups
Silicon Valley’s so-called “tech mafia” phenomenon has found a new focal point in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, as former employees increasingly spin out their own ventures.
Here are the 18 AI startups built by the OpenAI alumni:
ADEPT AI LABS
Founder: David Luan
Vertical: AI tools for workplace productivity
Funds raised: $350 million in 2023
ANTHROPIC
Founders: Dario and Daniela Amodei
Funds raised: Raised a $30 billion Series G round
APPLIED COMPUTE
Founders: Rhythm Garg, Linden Li and Yash Patil
Vertical: Helps enterprises train and deploy custom AI agents
Funds raised: $20 million
COVARIANT
Founders: Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen and Rocky Duan
Vertical: Builds foundation AI models for robotics
CRESTA
Founder: Tim Shi
Vertical: AI contact-center software
Funds raised: $270 million
DAEDALUS
Founder: Jonas Schneider
Vertical: Advanced precision-manufacturing factories
Funds raised: $21 million Series A
EUREKA LABS
Founder: Andrej Karpathy
Vertical: AI teaching assistants
KINDO
Founder: Margaret Jennings
Vertical: AI chatbot
Funds raised: $27 million
LIVING CARBON
Founder: Maddie Hall
Vertical: Climate-tech
Funds raised: $36 million
PERIODIC LABS
Founders: Liam Fedus and Ekin Dogus Cubuk
Vertical: Use AI to discover new materials
Funds raised: $300 million
PERPLEXITY
Founder: Aravind Srinivas
Vertical: AI search engine
Funds raised: 200 million (at $20 billion valuation)
PILOT
Founder: Jeff Arnold
Vertical: Accounting
Funds raised: $100 million Series C
PROSPER ROBOTICS
Founder: Shariq Hashme
Vertical: Home robot butler
SAFE SUPERINTELLIGENCE (SSI)
Founder: Ilya Sutskever
Vertical: Safe superintelligence
Funds raised: $2 billion (at $32 billion valuation)
STEM AI (Softmax)
Founder: Emmett Shear
Vertical: AI-powered goods
THINKING MACHINES LAB
Founder: Mira Murati
Vertical: Customizable AI systems
Funds raised: Valued at $12 billion
xAI
Founder: Kyle Kosic
Vertical: Chatbot
WORKTRACE
Founder: Angela Jiang
Vertical: Uses AI to analyze employee workflows
OpenAI Mafia launched 18 startups
Texas to become world’s largest data center market by 2030
Texas is on track to become the world’s largest data center market by the end of the decade, as cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) providers rapidly secure land, power and permits to support surging compute demand.
I saw this story at QZ and the state has long specialized in exporting energy. Now it is positioning itself to export computing capacity.
A new report from JLL said Texas, if treated as a single market, could surpass Northern Virginia by 2030 to become the world’s largest data center hub. Across North America, JLL estimates more than 35 gigawatts of capacity is currently under construction, with 64% of projects located in so-called “frontier markets” outside traditional data center hubs.
Those frontier markets are defined by the availability of three critical inputs: power, land and permitting capacity. Texas meets all three criteria, according to the report, which cited the state’s energy resources, land supply and operating environment as key advantages. The state alone has about 6.5 gigawatts under construction. (By the way I have a story here about Trendyol, which will build a data center in Ankara, Turkiye’s capital)
Data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas show Texas data centers are expected to reach roughly 8 gigawatts of peak demand in 2025, compared with the state grid’s 94-gigawatt peak load. Forecasts are rising quickly: an industry analysis by Bloom Energy noted ERCOT recently raised its 2030 projection for data center demand from 29 gigawatts to 77 gigawatts.
Utilities are ramping up investment in response. CenterPoint Energy, which serves much of the Houston region, increased its 2026–2035 capital spending plan to $65.5 billion and said it expects to add about 10 gigawatts of new load by the end of the decade. The company also forecasts peak demand could rise about 50% by 2029.
Texas to become world’s largest data center market by 2030
Google launches climate technology center in India
Google announced a new climate technology initiative in India aimed at accelerating AI-driven decarbonization, deepening the company’s alignment between artificial intelligence expansion and clean energy goals in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
The initiative, unveiled at the India AI Summit, is being developed in collaboration with the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India. I saw this story at ESG News and the partnership will establish the Google Center for Climate Technology on Manthan, the PSA’s flagship platform designed to strengthen the country’s research and development ecosystem.
The Google Center for Climate Technology is intended to serve as a national catalyst for climate-focused deep-tech research and decarbonization. The center will provide researchers access to sustainability-focused AI models and APIs while supporting talent development and collaborative research programs.
The center will seek research proposals in three priority areas where AI is expected to deliver measurable climate impact:
- building a technically skilled green workforce
- advancing sustainable aviation fuel research and deployment
- developing low-carbon construction materials to curb emissions from rapid urbanization
Selected projects will receive support to develop AI-powered, data-driven solutions targeting environmental challenges in India and globally.
Google launches climate technology center in India
