Konwinski Launches $100M AI Institute | Perplexity AI
Andy Konwinski, Perplexity AI co-founder, has launched the Laude Institute, a $100 million initiative designed to propel advancements in artificial intelligence. The institute, backed by Konwinski and other tech luminaries, will support computer scientists and fund impactful AI research, with a specific focus on early-stage projects and tackling aspiring challenges across various sectors. With initiatives like “Slingshots” and “Moonshots,” the Laude Institute plans to award grants and establish labs, including a new AI lab at UC Berkeley. Konwinski’s proven track record, including the co-founding of Perplexity AI and Databricks, underscores his commitment to AI innovation. news Directory 3 is tracking this story. Discover what’s next …
Andy Konwinski,a co-founder of both Perplexity AI and Databricks,has launched the Laude Institute,a $100 million research institution dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence. Konwinski, formerly a computer science Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley, played a key role in developing Apache Spark, a data processing engine that served as a foundation for Databricks.
the Laude Institute, Konwinski’s latest project, aims to support computer scientists and research with broad, positive implications. Konwinski described it as the most personal endeavor of his life in a June 23 blog post.
The founding team includes researchers Chris Rytting, K. Tighe, Justin Fiedler, and Lindsey Gregory. The board includes Turing Award winner David Patterson, Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind, and Joelle Pineau, formerly head of A.I. research at Meta. While konwinski is the primary funder, additional support is anticipated from other technologists.
Laude Institute’s Funding Initiatives
The Laude Institute will launch with two initiatives to accelerate impactful A.I. research. Slingshots, the first, offers grants to support early-stage projects. in partnership with Stanford university researchers, Slingshots has already backed an A.I. agent benchmark cited by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei after the release of the Claude 4 model in May.
Moonshots, the second initiative, will provide larger-scale funding for labs addressing ambitious challenges in scientific finding, 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 labs.
Beyond applied A.I., the Laude Institute will invest in foundational work. Its first major grant in this area will provide $3 million annually over five years to establish a new A.I.lab at UC Berkeley. The AI Systems Lab,expected to open by 2027,will be led by researchers Ion Stoica,Matei Zaharia,Joey Gonzalez,and Raluca-Ada Popa.
Konwinski’s previous A.I. ventures have seen success. He co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022, now valued at $14 billion. More than a decade prior, 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.
Konwinski said the Laude Institute aims to fund and elevate 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.”