OpenAI Launches 'Grove': A Mentorship Program for Early-Stage AI Entrepreneurs

OpenAI announces new mentorship program for budding tech founders

The program is aimed toward individuals in the pre-idea to pre-seed stage. OpenAI on Friday introduced a new program, dubbed the "OpenAI Grove," for early tech entrepreneurs looking to build with artificial intelligence, and applications are already open. Unlike OpenAI's Pioneer Program, which launched in April, Grove is aimed towards individuals at the very nascent phases of their company development, from the pre-idea to pre-seed stage. For five weeks, participants will receive mentoring from OpenAI technical leaders, early access to new tools and models, and in-person workshops, located in the company's San Francisco headquarters. Roughly 15 members will join Grove's first cohort, which will run from Oct. 20 to Nov. 21, 2025. Applicants will have until Sept. 24 to submit an entry form. CNBC has reached out to OpenAI for comment on the program. Following the program, Grove participants will be able to continue working internally with the ChatGPT maker, which was recent valued $500 billion. Other industry rivals have also already launched their own AI accelerator programs, including the Google for Startups Cloud AI Accelerator last winter. Earlier this April, Microsoft for Startups partnered with PearlX, a cohort accelerator program for pre-seed companies. Nurturing these budding AI companies is just a small chip in the recent massive investments into AI firms, which ate up an impressive 71% of U.S. venture funding in 2025, up from 45% last year, according to an analysis from J.P. Morgan. AI startups raised $104.3 billion in the U.S. in the first half of this year, and currently over 1,300 AI startups have valuations of over $100 million, according to CB Insights.

OpenAI Announces Grove, a Cohort for 'Pre-Idea Individuals' to Build in AI

The program will begin with five weeks of content hosted in OpenAI's headquarters in San Francisco, United States. OpenAI announced a new program called Grove on September 12, which is aimed at assisting technical talent at the very start of their journey in building startups and companies. The ChatGPT maker says that it isn't a traditional startup accelerator program, and offers 'pre-idea' individuals access to a dense talent network, which includes OpenAI's researchers, and other resources to build their ideas in the AI space. The program will begin with five weeks of content hosted in OpenAI's headquarters in San Francisco, United States. This includes in-person workshops, weekly office hours, and mentorship with OpenAI's leaders. The first Grove cohort will consist of approximately 15 participants, and OpenAI is recommending individuals from all domains and disciplines across various experience levels. "In addition to technical support and community, participants will also have the opportunity to get hands-on with new OpenAI tools and models before general availability," said OpenAI in the blog post. Once the program is completed, the company says that participants will be able to explore opportunities to explore capital or pursue other avenues, internal or external to OpenAI. Interested applicants can fill out the form on OpenAI's website by September 24. Grove is in addition to other programs such as 'Pioneers' and 'OpenAI for Startups', which were announced earlier this year. The OpenAI Pioneers program is an initiative that deploys AI to real-world use cases by assisting companies that intend to do so. OpenAI's research teams will collaborate with these companies to solve the problems and expand their capabilities. On the other hand, OpenAI for startups is an initiative designed to provide founders with AI tools, resources, and community support to scale their AI products. For instance, the program includes 'live build hours' where engineers from OpenAI provide hands-on demos, webinars, access to code repositories, ask me anything (AMA) sessions, case studies, and more. It also includes real-life meetups, events, and more to assist founders in their journey. If startups are backed by venture capital firms that are partners of OpenAI (Thrive Capital, Sequoia, a16z, Kleiner Perkins, and Conviction Partners), they are eligible for free API credits, rate limit upgrades, and interactions with the company's team members, alongside invites to exclusive events.