Recursive
Recursively self-improving AI to automate scientific discovery — starting with AI that improves AI
AI
📍 San Francisco, CA & London, UK
Founded 2025
Current Valuation
$4.7B
as of 2026-Q1
UNICORN
Recursive (Recursive Superintelligence) is an AI research lab building recursively self-improving AI via open-ended algorithms, focused first on 'AI that improves AI' before extending the playbook to other sciences. It emerged from stealth in January 2026 with a $650M round at a $4.65B post-money valuation, co-led by GV and Greycroft with participation from Nvidia and AMD Ventures. It has eight co-founders — publicly prominent among them CEO Richard Socher (former Salesforce chief scientist, You.com founder), Jeff Clune (founder of Uber AI Labs; DeepMind/OpenAI), and Tim Rocktäschel (UCL professor, ex-Google DeepMind) — and offices in San Francisco and London. In June 2026 it published state-of-the-art results from its automated research system on NanoChat, NanoGPT Speedrun, and NVIDIA's SOL-ExecBench.
Company Profile
HQ
San Francisco, CA & London, UK
Growth
Pre-revenue research lab
Last Round
Seed (stealth emergence) — $650M (Jan 2026) · Lead: GV & Greycroft
Fundraising Status
Seed (stealth emergence) · $650M · 6 mo ago
privateTotal raised $650M1 disclosed rounds
Funding History
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead Investor | Post-Money |
|---|
| Seed (stealth emergence) | $650M | Jan 2026 | GV & Greycroft | $4.7B |
Founders & Key People
Richard SocherJeff CluneTim Rocktäschel
Investors
GV · Greycroft · Nvidia · AMD Ventures
Products
- Automated AI research system (recursive self-improvement engine)
Competitors
OpenAI · Anthropic · Google DeepMind · Safe Superintelligence · Sakana AI
AISuperintelligenceRecursive Self-ImprovementAI Research LabStealth Exit 2026
Private-company numbers are not real-time. Reflects publicly disclosed valuations from press releases, news reports, and tender offers as of 2026-Q1. Refreshed quarterly.