A small circle of elite programmers and mathematicians who bonded over Olympic competitions and a prestigious trading internship have quietly built one of tech's most powerful networks, launching AI startups now worth tens of billions of dollars. The group includes Alexandr Wang (Meta AI), Scott Wu (Cognition), Johnny Ho (Perplexity), Jesse Zhang (Decagon), and Demi Guo (Pika), among others. What started as friendships forged in high school math and coding competitions evolved into a modern version of the "PayPal Mafia" that shaped early-2000s Silicon Valley .

How Did This Network Actually Form?

The story begins with Hudson River Trading (HRT), a quantitative trading giant that runs one of the most selective internship programs in finance. During the first cohort of HRT's internship program, only 10 interns were chosen. Most of this group had already met years earlier through International Olympiad competitions, where they earned gold medals in mathematics, physics, and computer science. According to Scott Wu's own account, many members of this circle had been competing together since high school, creating bonds that would later fuel their entrepreneurial ventures .

At age 19, Alexandr Wang posed a question to his peers that would become the group's unofficial motto: "Why not us?" referring to whether they could build a network as influential as the PayPal Mafia. A decade later, that bold question appears to be answered affirmatively. These young founders are now reshaping the AI landscape with companies valued at extraordinary multiples.

Who Are the Key Players and What Have They Built?

The network spans multiple AI sectors, each founder targeting different market opportunities:

• Alexandr Wang (Meta AI): Founded Scale AI in 2016 after dropping out of MIT. The company annotates data for training AI systems in computer vision and audio transcription. By 2021, Scale AI reached a $7.3 billion valuation, making Wang a billionaire at just 28 years old. In June 2025, Meta acquired a 49% stake for $14.3 billion, with Wang joining Meta to lead its Superintelligence Labs (MSL), which released the Muse Spark model in April 2026 .
• Scott Wu (Cognition): Co-founded Cognition in 2023 with fellow Olympiad gold medalists Steven Hao and Walden Yan. The company launched Devin, described as the world's first autonomous AI software engineer capable of writing, testing, and deploying code independently. Cognition raised $175 million in May 2024 at a $2 billion valuation, then $400 million more in September 2025, pushing the valuation to $10.2 billion. By early 2026, the company had reached $400 million in annualized revenue .
• Johnny Ho (Perplexity): Co-founded Perplexity in August 2022 as an AI search engine providing conversational search with cited sources. The company grew from 10 million monthly visits in 2023 to 15 million monthly active users by April 2024. Perplexity raised $500 million in its fourth funding round by year-end 2024, reaching a $9 billion valuation. By July 2025, it had raised an additional $100 million at an $18 billion valuation, and currently sits at a $20 billion valuation. Ho's personal net worth has reached $2.1 billion .
• Jesse Zhang (Decagon): Co-founded Decagon in 2023 to automate enterprise customer service using AI agents. The company raised $35 million in June 2024, then $65 million in Series B, $131 million in Series C (June 2025), and $250 million in Series D (January 2026), reaching a $4.5 billion valuation .
• Demi Guo (Pika): Co-founded Pika, a video generation AI platform that competes in the rapidly expanding AI video creation market .

What Makes This Network Different from Previous Tech Dynasties?

The PayPal Mafia of the early 2000s, which included Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, created a template for how a tight-knit group of founders could reshape entire industries. This new generation appears to be following a similar playbook, but with AI as their primary vehicle. Unlike the PayPal Mafia, which emerged from a single company, this network was built through academic competition and selective internship programs, creating bonds based on intellectual achievement rather than workplace proximity .

The combined valuation of companies founded by this group now exceeds $50 billion, with several members achieving billionaire status before age 30. Their success has also attracted attention from major tech companies; Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI and acquisition of Wang's leadership represents one of the largest bets a major tech company has made on a single AI infrastructure founder.

How to Understand the Broader Implications of This Network?

The rise of this interconnected group of founders offers several insights into how AI talent is concentrating and how future tech leaders are being identified:

• Talent Concentration: Elite academic competitions like the International Olympiad in Informatics serve as early-stage talent identification mechanisms, allowing top performers to find each other and build networks before entering the professional world.
• Selective Internship Programs: Prestigious internship programs at firms like Hudson River Trading function as networking hubs where already-accomplished young people can deepen relationships and discuss ambitious ideas.
• Rapid Scaling in AI: Unlike previous tech cycles, AI companies are reaching billion-dollar valuations in just 2-3 years, allowing founders to accumulate significant wealth and influence while still in their late twenties.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration: Members of this network have invested in and advised each other's companies, creating a reinforcing cycle where success in one venture attracts capital and talent to others.

The emergence of this network also raises questions about talent inequality in AI. If the most promising AI founders are drawn from a small pool of Olympiad competitors and elite universities, it may concentrate AI development among a narrow demographic, potentially limiting the diversity of perspectives shaping the technology's future direction.

As these founders continue to scale their companies and influence AI development, their network effect may become as significant as their individual innovations. The question Alexandr Wang posed at 19 appears to have found its answer: yes, this generation can build something as influential as the PayPal Mafia, and they're doing it in real time .