Tuesday, October 27, 2026 · Edition updated 6:00 AM ETTUE, OCT 27 editionNext edition in Next in --:--:--
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AI startups

AI that improves AI

Companies trying to automate AI research itself, so AI helps build better AI. Each company's last reported valuation, next to what it has actually shipped.

  • 4young companies
  • 1valued at $1 billion or more at their last closed round
  • 3with no public product yet, by our search
4 companies

Who they are, what they've built.

Read Oct 20, 2026. Valuations and amounts are copied as each source states them; open "Founders, funding and notes" on a card for every round and its source.

Recursive Superintelligence

United Kingdom · founded 2026

“The fastest path to superintelligence will be realised by AI that recursively improves itself” Recursive Superintelligence (blog post, quoted by Tech.eu), company-reported

$4.65Bvaluation, May 13, 2026
Nothing public found

LatestEmerged from stealth with $650 million; Socher says products will take 'quarters, not years', and the first focus is improving AI research itself.May 14, 2026 · TechCrunch

Founders, funding and notes
Founders
  • Richard Socher: former Salesforce chief scientist (Tech.eu); known for founding You.com (TechCrunch) (TechCrunch, May 14, 2026)
  • Tim Rocktäschel: AI professor at UCL (Tech.eu); previously led open-endedness and self-improvement teams at Google DeepMind (TechCrunch) (TechCrunch, May 14, 2026)
Funding, as reported
  • May 13, 2026, Unnamed (emerged from stealth): $650 million, valued at $4.65 billion (company-stated). Investors named: GV (co-lead), Greycroft (co-lead), Nvidia, AMD (SiliconANGLE, May 13, 2026)
Note

Valuation is the company's own figure; TechCrunch did not report one. TechCrunch gives HQ as San Francisco while Tech.eu says incorporated in London with offices in both; fewer than 30 staff at launch (Tech.eu). Not to be confused with Ricursive Intelligence.

Valuation, May 13, 2026 · Description, May 13, 2026

Poetiq

founded 2025

“automated, recursive self-improvement” Poetiq, company-reported

No valuation reported
Research only so far

LatestRaised $45.8M seed to run its recursive improvement loops around the clock; early access via request form.Jan 29, 2026 · Poetiq

Founders, funding, outside checks and notes
Founders
  • Shumeet Baluja: co-CEO; former Google DeepMind researcher (as the source describes the founding team) (VKTR, Feb 2, 2026)
  • Ian Fischer: former Google DeepMind researcher (as the source describes the founding team) (VKTR, Feb 2, 2026)
Funding, as reported
  • Jan 29, 2026, Seed: $45.8M. Investors named: Surface (co-lead), FYRFLY (co-lead), Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Operator Collective, NeuronVC, HICO (Poetiq, Jan 29, 2026)
Outside checks
  • Poetiq says ARC Prize 'officially verified' 54% on ARC-AGI-2 at $30.57 per problem on the semi-private set; we could not load ARC Prize's own leaderboard data to confirm. (Poetiq, Dec 5, 2025)
Note

Six-person team at the time of the seed (VKTR). VKTR is not on our trusted-outlet list; funding is confirmed on Poetiq's own post. Country/HQ not stated in pages fetched.

Description, Jan 29, 2026

Adaption Labs

United States

“Adaption is building adaptive intelligence that continually learns.” Adaption Labs, company-reported

No valuation reported
Has a product

LatestRaised $50 million seed led by Emergence Capital Partners; company declined to share valuation.Feb 4, 2026 · Fortune

Founders, funding and notes
Founders
  • Sara Hooker: formerly vice president of research at Cohere; background at Google DeepMind (Fortune, Feb 4, 2026)
  • Sudip Roy: previously director of inference computing at Cohere; CTO (Fortune, Feb 4, 2026)
Funding, as reported
  • Feb 4, 2026, Seed: $50 million. Investors named: Emergence Capital Partners (lead), Mozilla Ventures, Fifty Years, Threshold Ventures, Alpha Intelligence Capital, E14 Fund, Neo (Fortune, Feb 4, 2026)
Note

Focus is continual learning ('gradient-free learning' at inference time) rather than full recursive self-improvement; included as a distinctive smaller company. Fortune is not on our trusted-outlet list. Founding year not found; a 2025 founding is likely but unverified. Product pages are undated.

Description

“Autoscience builds AI systems that train state-of-the-art models for frontier and applied AI labs.” Autoscience, company-reported

No valuation reported
Research only so far

LatestRaised $14 million seed to build an autonomous AI research lab; deploying a managed service for Fortune 500 and large private companies that train specialized models.Mar 19, 2026 · SiliconANGLE

Founders, funding, outside checks and notes
Founders
  • Eliot Cowan: chief executive (only person named; founder status not stated) (SiliconANGLE, Mar 19, 2026)
Funding, as reported
  • Mar 19, 2026, Seed: $14 million. Investors named: General Catalyst (lead), Toyota Ventures, Perplexity Fund, MaC Ventures, S32 (SiliconANGLE, Mar 19, 2026)
Outside checks
  • Carl's paper was accepted to an ICLR 2025 workshop track with human edits limited to citations and formatting (as reported). (SiliconANGLE, Mar 19, 2026)
Note

Small, but distinctive: explicitly automating machine-learning research. SiliconANGLE is not on our trusted-outlet list. Founding year, country and HQ not found in pages fetched.

Description

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