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
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 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.
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© 2025 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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