Databricks and Perplexity Co-Founder Andy Konwinski Launches $100M AI Research Institute

Databricks, Perplexity co-founder pledges $100M on new fund for AI researchers | TechCrunch

Andy Konwinski, computer scientist and co-founder of Databricks and Perpelexity, announced on Monday that his personal company, Laude, is forming a new AI research institute backed with a $100 million pledge of his own money. Laude Institute is less an AI research lab and more like a fund looking to make investments structured similar to grants. In addition to Konwinski, the institute's board includes UC Berkeley professor Dave Patterson (known for a string of award-winning research), Jeff Dean (known as Google's chief scientist), and Joelle Pineau (Meta's vice president of AI Research). Konwinski announced the institute's first and "flagship" grant of $3 million a year for five years, and it will anchor the new AI Systems Lab at UC Berkeley. This is a new lab led by one of Berkeley's famed, Ion Stoica, current director of the Sky Computing Lab. Stoica is also a co-founder of startup Anyscale (an AI and python platform) and AI big data company Databricks, both from tech developed in Berkeley's lab system. The new AI Systems Lab is set to open in 2027 and, in addition to Stoica, will include a number of other well-known researchers. In his blog post announcing the institute, Konwinski described its mission as "built by and for computer science researchers ... We exist to catalyze work that doesn't just push the field forward but guides it towards more beneficial outcomes." That's not necessarily a direct dig at OpenAI, which started out as an AI research facility and is now, arguably, consumed by its enormous commercial side. But other researchers have fallen prey to the lure of money as well. For instance, popular AI researcher Epoch faced controversy when it revealed that OpenAI supported the creation of one of its AI benchmarks that was then used to unveil its new o3 model. Epoch's founder also launched a startup with a controversial mission to replace all human workers everywhere with AI agents. Like other AI research organizations with commercial ambitions, Konwinski has structured his institute across boundaries: as a nonprofit with a public benefit corporation operating arm. He's dividing his research investments into two buckets that he calls "Slingshots and Moonshots." Slingshots are for early-stage research that can benefit from grants and hands-on help. Moonshots are, as the name implies, for "long-horizon labs tackling species-level challenges like AI for scientific discovery, civic discourse, healthcare, and workforce reskilling." His lab has, for instance, collaborated with "terminal-bench," a Stanford-led benchmark for how well AI agents handle tasks, used by Anthropic. One thing to note, Konwinski's company Laude isn't solely a grant-writing research institute. He also co-founded a for-profit venture fund launched in 2024. The fund's co-founder is former NEA VC Pete Sonsini. As TechCrunch previously reported, Laude led a $12 million investment in AI agent infrastructure startup Arcade. It has quietly backed other startups, too. A Laude spokesperson tells us that while Konwinski has pledged $100 million, he's also looking for, and open to, investment from other successful technologists. As to how Konwinski amassed a fortune enough to guarantee $100 million for this new endeavor: Databricks closed a $15.3 billion funding round in January that valued the company at $62 billion. Perplexity last month secured a $14 billion valuation, too. Does the world really need yet another AI "good for humanity" research or with a murky nonprofit/commercial structure? No, and yes. AI research has become increasingly muddled. For instance, AI benchmarks designed to prove that a particular vendor's model works best have become plentiful these days. (Even Salesforce has its own LLM benchmark for CRMs.) An alliance that includes the likes of Konwinski, Dean, and Stoica supporting truly independent research that could one day turn into independent and human-helpful commerce could be an attractive alternative.

Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity AI, launches new research institute focused on beneficial AI - SiliconANGLE

Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity AI, launches new research institute focused on beneficial AI Databricks Inc. co-founder and Apache Spark creator Andy Konwinski this week announced the creation of a new artificial intelligence research institute called Laude that's backed with $100 million of his own cash. The computer scientist said in a June 23 blog post that Laude Institute intends to support AI research that has the most potential for broad, positive impacts on humanity. "This is the most personal project of my life, and it's been a long time coming," Konwinski said. Konwinski (pictured, second from right), who is also the co-founder of Perplexity AI Inc., said Laude Institute has hired a number of prominent AI researchers, including Chris Rytting, K. Tighe, Justin Fiedler and Lindsey Gregory, while its board of directors includes personalities such as the Turing Award winner David Patterson, Google DeepMind Chief Scientist Jeff Dean and former Head of AI research at Meta Platforms Inc., Joelle Pineau. To begin with, Laude Institute will kick off with two separate initiatives. The first is called Slingshots, a project that offers small, fast-track grants to early-stage AI projects in partnership with researchers from Stanford University. It has already backed the creation of a new benchmark for AI agents that can automate business work. That benchmark was later referenced by Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei in May when it launched its latest large language model, Claude 4. As for the second initiative, it's called Moonshots, and aims to provide significantly larger grants to AI research labs that aim to tackle some of humanity's toughest challenges. Konwinski said it's focused on projects targeting areas such as healthcare, workforce reskilling, scientific discovery and civic discourse, and plans to award two seed grants of $250,000 in each category. In addition, Konwinski said the institute will look to invest in "foundational work" that advances the computing industry, and it has already doled out a substantial grant to the new AI Systems Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. It will provide $3 million annually to the new lab for five years, he said. It's expected to open in 2027, and will be led by a number of prominent AI researchers and computer scientists, including Konwinski's co-founder at Databricks, Ion Stoica and Matei Zaharia. "We exist to catalyze work that doesn't just push the field forward but guides it towards more beneficial outcomes," Konwinski wrote. "We help get ideas out of the lab and into the world by giving the right resources to the right researchers at the right time." Konwinski has been extremely successful in his previous AI endeavors. He co-founded Databricks more than a decade ago after helping to develop the open-source data processing platform Apache Spark, which has become a foundational technology for thousands of enterprises. Databricks has since emerged as one of the major players in AI, reaching a valuation of $62 billion following a mammoth $10 billion funding round earlier this year. More recently, Konwinski co-founded Perplexity AI, the generative AI search engine that has achieved a $14 billion valuation and set off alarm bells at Google LLC. Last year, he founded Laude Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage startups and a kind of sister organization to Laude Institute. While Laude Ventures is much more of a commercial organization, Laude Institute is more interested in funding projects that will be beneficial to everyone. "For years, I've wanted to build something that would help more researchers take that journey from idea to impact," Konwinski wrote. "Our goal is simple: get more world-changing research into people's hands."

This Perplexity cofounder wants to help AI breakthroughs graduate from university labs

A team of prominent AI researchers, led by Databricks and Perplexity cofounder Andy Konwinski, has launched Laude Institute, a new nonprofit that helps university-based researchers turn their breakthroughs into open-source projects, startups, or large-scale products with real-world impact. Laude brings together top academic and industry leaders to guide promising AI research out of the lab and into the world. Its mission: help more AI ideas cross the gap from paper to product. The effort builds on a growing belief within the AI and open-source communities that the field's biggest advances should be developed in public, not behind corporate walls. Many promising breakthroughs happen inside university labs, but often end up as research papers with no clear path to deployment. At the same time, as AI's development costs and potential rewards have skyrocketed, the need to support ambitious academic work outside of the big tech ecosystem has become more urgent. Konwinski, who was named one of Bloomberg's "New Billionaires of the AI Boom," has assembled a high-profile board for Laude. Among its members are Google's head of AI Jeff Dean, board chairman and Turing Award winner Dave Patterson, and Joëlle Pineau, a professor at McGill University and the Quebec AI Institute (Mila), and former Global VP of AI Research at Meta (FAIR). Laude's core goal is to replicate and enhance the university lab model used by departments like UC Berkeley's, known for foundational AI research. As a PhD student at Berkeley, Konwinski helped develop Apache Spark and later cofounded Databricks to commercialize it. That experience shaped his vision for Laude. "I could do another company," he says, "but I'm honestly more interested in helping find other Databricks' and Perplexities and Linux and the internet and the personal computer."

Co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity launches $100M AI research institute

Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity, established the Laude Institute, a new AI research institute, committing $100 million of his personal capital to fund its operations. The Laude Institute operates as a funding entity, structuring its financial contributions as grant-like investments, rather than functioning as a traditional AI research laboratory. The institute's board of directors includes Andy Konwinski; Dave Patterson, a University of California, Berkeley professor recognized for award-winning research; Jeff Dean, Google's chief scientist; and Joelle Pineau, Meta's vice president of AI Research. The Laude Institute's initial and primary grant allocates $3 million annually for a period of five years. This funding will serve as the foundational support for the new AI Systems Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. Ion Stoica, current director of the Sky Computing Lab and co-founder of both Anyscale and Databricks, will lead the new AI Systems Lab. Anyscale, an AI and Python platform, and Databricks, an AI big data company, were developed from technology originating within Berkeley's lab system. The AI Systems Lab is scheduled to commence operations in 2027 and will include additional prominent researchers alongside Stoica. Konwinski articulated the institute's mission in a blog post, stating it is "built by and for computer science researchers." He specified, "We exist to catalyze work that doesn't just push the field forward but guides it towards more beneficial outcomes." Perplexity's chatbot now generates videos on X for free The institute's structure is bifurcated into a nonprofit entity with a public benefit corporation operating arm. Konwinski categorizes his research investments into two distinct types: "Slingshots" and "Moonshots." "Slingshots" are designated for early-stage research projects that can benefit from grants and direct assistance. "Moonshots" are reserved for "long-horizon labs tackling species-level challenges like AI for scientific discovery, civic discourse, healthcare, and workforce re-skilling." The Laude Institute has engaged in collaborations, including with "terminal-bench," a Stanford-led benchmark designed to assess the performance of AI agents in handling tasks, which Anthropic utilizes. Beyond the grant-making research institute, Konwinski's endeavors under the "Laude" name also encompass a for-profit venture fund, co-founded in 2024 with Pete Sonsini, a former NEA Ventures Capitalist. A spokesperson for Laude indicated that the fund includes more than 50 leading researchers as limited partners. Laude previously led a $12 million investment in Arcade, an AI agent infrastructure startup, and has provided quiet backing to other startups as well. While Konwinski has pledged $100 million of his own capital to the Laude Institute, a Laude spokesperson affirmed that he is open to and actively seeking additional investment from other successful technologists. Konwinski's financial capacity stems from his involvement with Databricks, which completed a $15.3 billion funding round in January, resulting in a company valuation of $62 billion. Separately, Perplexity achieved a $14 billion valuation in the preceding month.

Perplexity AI and Databricks Co-Founder Andy Konwinski Launches $100M A.I. Institute

"This is the most personal project of my life, and it's been a long time coming," said Konwinski. Before co-founding A.I. companies like Perplexity AI, Andy Konwinski was a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. It was there that he helped develop Apache Spark, an open-source data processing engine that laid the groundwork for Databricks, now one of Silicon Valley's top A.I. companies. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters Berkeley was also the birthplace of his latest and most personal project: the Laude Institute, a new research organization built by and for computer scientists. Backed by $100 million of Konwinski's own funding, the institute aims to support research with the potential for broad, positive impact. "This is the most personal project of my life, and it's been a long time coming," Konwinski wrote in a blog post announcing the launch on June 23. The founding team includes researchers Chris Rytting, K. Tighe, Justin Fiedler and Lindsey Gregory. The institute's board features prominent figures in tech, including Turing Award winner David Patterson; Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind; and Joelle Pineau, former head of A.I. research at Meta. While Konwinski is the primary funder, additional support from other technologists is expected. What will the Laude Institute fund? Slingshots, Moonshots The Laude Institute is launching with two flagship initiatives aimed at accelerating impactful A.I. research. The first, called Slingshots, offers fast-track grants to support early-stage projects. In partnership with researchers at Stanford University, Slingshots has already backed an A.I. agent benchmark that was later cited by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei following the release of the Claude 4 model in May. The second initiative, Moonshots, will provide larger-scale funding for labs tackling some of the field's most ambitious challenges. Focus areas include scientific discovery, civic discourse, healthcare and workforce re-skilling. The institute plans to award two $250,000 seed grants in each category and scale up promising efforts into multi-year, multimillion-dollar labs. Beyond applied A.I., Konwinski's institute will also invest in what he calls "foundational work that advances computing itself." Its first major grant in this area will provide $3 million annually over five years to establish a new A.I. lab at the University of California, Berkeley. The AI Systems Lab, expected to open by 2027, will be led by a team of prominent researchers including Ion Stoica, Matei Zaharia, Joey Gonzalez and Raluca-Ada Popa. Konwinski's past ventures in A.I. have been highly successful. In 2022, he co-founded Perplexity AI, the A.I.-powered search engine now valued at $14 billion. More than a decade earlier, he helped launch Databricks, which reached a $62 billion valuation earlier this year. In 2024, he also founded Laude Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage tech startups, and introduced a $1 million prize to encourage innovation around an A.I. coding benchmark. With the Laude Institute, Konwinski aims to create a platform that funds, convenes and elevates the work of computer scientists. "For years, I've wanted to build something that would help more researchers take that journey from idea to impact," he said. "Our goal is simple: get more world-changing research into people's hands."