Google Mafia Dominates Tech's New AI Frontier As Alphabet Alumni Raise $15B

Move over ‘PayPal Mafia.’

What Happened: Fourteen Silicon Valley savvy ex-Google employees with an artificial intelligence-first mindset are leading some of the most cutting-edge startups. Together, these startups boast a jaw-dropping valuation of $71.61 billion, according to research by writerbuddy.ai.

The companies — which observers dubbed the ‘Google Mafia’ — collectively raised $14.7 billion in funding as of October. They include:

• San Francisco-based Anthropic, co-founded by former Googler Dario Amodei; boasts a $40 billion valuation and $9.7 billion in funding.
• Perplexity, co-founded by former Google intern Aravind Srinivas, is also in San Francisco and has an $8 billion valuation.
• Mistral AI, co-founded by Arthur Mensch, who left Google DeepMind in May 2023; this Paris-based company now has a $6.2 billion valuation.

From San Francisco to Paris, the Google Mafia's influence stretches far and wide, dominating the AI sector in scale and ambition

Read Also: Elon Musk’s xAI Raises $6B For The 2nd Time This Year As It Looks To Take The Challenge To OpenAI, Google And Jeff Bezos-Backed Anthropic

Why It Matters: The broader AI landscape accumulated $52.8 billion in total funding, divvied up across the top 50 AI companies. That’s a 600% surge, compared to 2020. California-based companies amassed $47.9 billion worth of that funding.

Unsurprisingly, 67% of these investments—$35.5 billion—are funneled into AI Infrastructure and Models, the backbone of next-gen AI advancements.

Much like the PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) Mafia gave us Tesla Inc, LinkedIn, and YouTube, the Google Mafia is reshaping the AI landscape with innovation and capital.

With investment soaring and ex-Google visionaries leading the charge, it’s evident that the AI revolution is here to stay.

Read Next:

• Perplexity CEO Asks If AI Startup Should Acquire Google Chrome Following DOJ’s Antitrust Push Against Search Giant

Image: Shutterstock