converge

Converge: OpenAI’s Second Startup Cohort Takes Flight

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Palace intrigue might be dominating the news cycle around OpenAI, but the AI startup — and its accelerator programs — are chugging along uninterrupted, so the PR team tells me. OpenAI today announced the launch of Converge-2, the second cohort of its six-week Converge program for “exceptional engineers, designers, researchers, and product builders using AI to reimagine the world,” as the company describes it in a blog post published this morning. As with members of OpenAI’s first Converge cohort, the 10-15 startups chosen to participate in Converge-2 will receive a $1 million equity investment from the OpenAI Startup Fund, the $100 million-plus entrepreneurial tranche announced last May backed by Microsoft and other OpenAI partners. Do the math, and that’s at least a $10 million investment in the Converge-2 program — not an insubstantial chunk of change. OpenAI is encouraging founders from all backgrounds, disciplines and experience levels to apply, including those based outside of the U.S.