According to The Information, founders Behnam Neyshabur (CEO) and Harsh Mehta (CTO) left Anthropic in December and are now negotiating a $175 million funding round at a $1 billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins are reportedly expected to co-lead the round, although the terms have not yet been finalized.

Neyshabur previously led a team at Anthropic focused on scientific AI reasoning and had earlier spent more than five years at Google DeepMind. Mehta worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Anthropic. The founding team also includes Shayan Salehian, formerly at xAI, and Tara Rezaei, who was previously an intern at OpenAI.

Mirendil joins a growing wave of so-called neo-labs — specialized AI startups launched by researchers leaving major AI companies. These ventures typically focus on narrow domains such as office work or on developing fundamentally new AI paradigms designed to overcome the limitations of current systems, including approaches like continuous learning.

Conclusion

Mirendil reflects a broader shift in the AI sector, where top researchers are increasingly leaving established labs to build highly specialized startups around science-focused applications. If the funding round closes on the reported terms, it would signal that investors still see major upside in niche AI labs with deep technical pedigree and a clear research-driven thesis.