People and AI agents building production software together - from business intent to shipped code, with a full audit trail.
Above: the 8090 wordmark, rendered in the company's blocky pixel-clock typeface - a nod to the "software factory" idea at the core of the brand.
8090 is trying to solve an unglamorous problem: the trillion-dollar hairball of legacy enterprise software that nobody wants to touch. Its answer is a platform where teams of people and AI agents build and modernize applications together - and where every decision along the way is written down.
Founded by investor Chamath Palihapitiya in January 2024, the company started as a self-funded incubator with a specific thesis, encoded in its name: deliver roughly 80% of a legacy product's features at close to a 90% discount, using AI. Two years later, that thesis is a company with a $135M Series A, a full-time operating CEO, and marquee customers in some of the most heavily regulated industries in the economy.
The flagship product, Software Factory, launched publicly on September 1, 2025. Rather than an in-editor autocomplete, it acts as a control plane for the entire software development lifecycle - defining requirements, capturing architecture decisions, generating work orders, and validating feedback, so that AI coding agents produce code that is correct, aligned, and auditable.
You don't need more tabs. You need alignment, execution and velocity in one clean flow.
Software Factory reads like an assembly line. Each module hands work to the next, carrying the context - requirements, architecture, history - that keeps AI-generated code tethered to what leadership actually asked for.
A requirements editor. Turns a mess of natural-language ideas into precise, structured Product Requirements Documents.
The architectural intelligence layer. Converts requirements into technical blueprints and keeps intent, design and code aligned over time.
Breaks blueprints into structured "work orders" - task specs carrying requirement references, blueprint links and full history.
AI agents receive work orders over MCP and execute inside your existing environment - Cursor, VS Code or Claude Code.
Closes the feedback loop: captures user input from any source and auto-generates structured development tasks, with Slack alerts.
"Vibe coding" produces prototypes, not products. In regulated industries, unaudited AI output is a non-starter. 8090 focuses on the unsexy middle: the controls, documentation and review gates that turn a demo into software an enterprise can actually run.
Regulated and complex industries - healthcare, life sciences, insurance, aerospace, energy, manufacturing, financial services and government - where compliance and traceability matter more than raw speed.
Where Copilot and Cursor optimize for the individual coder, 8090 optimizes for the person accountable for the code. It's a full SDLC control plane, not an autocomplete - with every requirement, decision and change linked and auditable.
Software Factory (self-serve): priced around $200 per user per month plus token usage. Teams run the platform themselves and keep their own environment.
8090 Enterprise (managed): starting around $1M per year, 8090 designs, builds, hosts and maintains a purpose-built application on the client's behalf. The client keeps control of business logic; 8090 retains the codebase IP.
Same platform, two very different appetites for control - one for teams that want to drive, one for enterprises that want the whole thing delivered.
Relative entry price. Enterprise is fully managed, build-host-maintain.
When a Big Four firm outsources its AI development lifecycle to a two-year-old startup, it says something about where enterprise AI is heading. In March 2026, EY launched EY.ai PDLC powered by 8090's Software Factory.
Chamath Palihapitiya launches 8090 as a self-funded incubator to rebuild legacy enterprise software with AI.
The AI-native SDLC platform launches publicly on September 1, 2025.
EY builds its AI product development lifecycle on top of Software Factory.
Salesforce Ventures leads the round; Chamath moves from the board to full-time CEO.
Since I left Facebook, I was waiting for a moment like this to return to a full-time operating role.
The Series A drew Salesforce Ventures as lead, alongside WndrCo, Craft Ventures, The Production Board and Launch, plus angels including Nikesh Arora and Adam D'Angelo. Valuation was not disclosed.
Product demos and walkthroughs of the five-module platform.
See Refinery through Validator turn intent into production code.
The founder on returning to an operating role and the enterprise-AI thesis.
8090 builds Software Factory, an AI-native platform that lets teams of people and AI agents develop and modernize enterprise software together - from business intent to production code, with full documentation and audit trails.
Chamath Palihapitiya founded 8090 in January 2024 and, as of June 2026, serves as its full-time CEO after moving from a board role.
8090 raised a $135M Series A in June 2026, led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from WndrCo, Craft Ventures, The Production Board and Launch, plus several angel investors.
8090 targets regulated and complex industries. Named customers and partners include CMS, EY, Bissell, Dompe, AdaptHealth and Palmetto.
Rather than an in-editor autocomplete, 8090 is a full SDLC control plane - five modules carrying requirements, architecture, work orders, execution and feedback - with the oversight and audit trails regulated enterprises require.