Former OpenAI executive Kevin Weil has sought a valuation of at least $750 million for his new AI science startup

Aug 12, 2026 02:38 AM - 1 hour ago 1

Kevin Weil, the former main merchandise serviceman of OpenAI, has sought a valuation of astatine slightest $750 cardinal for a caller AI subject startup, according to 3 group pinch knowledge of the discussions.

Weil is aiming to raise $150 cardinal successful the round, according to these sources. The specifications person not been finalized yet and could still change.

Weil did not respond to a petition for comment.

Weil's fundraising is the latest motion that AI's adjacent frontier is shifting from chatbots to science. A increasing number of OpenAI and Google alums are launching startups that committedness to accelerate technological discovery, from designing caller narcotics to moving autonomous experiments.

Weil departed OpenAI earlier this year, wherever he was main merchandise serviceman and past oversaw subject initiatives. He oversaw Prism, a workspace designed to bring frontier models straight into scientists' workflows.

Prior to OpenAI, Weil was a merchandise executive astatine Meta and Twitter. He holds various committee seats, including connected the boards of Cisco and Stoke Space.

The nonstop specifications of his caller startup could not beryllium learned, but sources opportunity he has sounded it arsenic a measurement to stitchery technological information for AI models.

Weil is acold from the only elder OpenAI leader to caput for the exits. Brad Lightcap, the company's longtime erstwhile main operating officer, announced that he was leaving aft 8 years to commencement "something new." Fidji Simo stepped down arsenic CEO of applications successful July, citing wellness reasons, and moved into a part-time advisory role. In April, Weil's departure coincided pinch the exits of Sora's head, Bill Peebles, and Srinivas Narayanan, OpenAI's CTO for business applications.

Weil's caller AI-for-science startup enters an progressively competitory title to usage artificial intelligence to automate the technological process.

Periodic Labs, founded by erstwhile OpenAI interrogator Liam Fedus and erstwhile Google DeepMind interrogator Ekin Dogus Cubuk, is building AI scientists alongside autonomous laboratories wherever robots tin behaviour beingness experiments and make caller training data. Investors successful that institution see Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Jeff Bezos, and Eric Schmidt.

Last week, Jeff Dean, Google's main scientist, announced that he and 3 different colleagues were leaving to commencement Discovery Loop, an AI startup focused connected AI applications successful subject and engineering.

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Here is simply a small much astir me: Previously, I was a elder newsman astatine LAist/Southern California Public Radio, wherever I covered business and economics. I person besides written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review and was a reporting intern astatine The Times. I started my profession arsenic a shaper for NPR's Morning Edition and besides produced award-winning documentaries for nationalist television.I spent the 2017-2018 world twelvemonth astatine Columbia Business School arsenic a Knight-Bagehot fellow. After that, I oversaw the improvement of The Journal, a regular podcast produced by The Wall Street Journal and Gimlet Media.Originally from Seattle, I graduated cum laude from Occidental College successful Los Angeles pinch a grade successful politics.In my free time, I emotion skiing, tennis, and poker. I competed successful the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event but sadly did not win.