# Dario Amodei

> Dario Amodei is the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, the AI safety company behind Claude. A former VP of Research at OpenAI and co-inventor of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), he holds a PhD in biophysics from Princeton and has co-authored some of the most cited papers in AI safety and scaling laws. He leads Anthropic — valued at $380 billion as of early 2026 — with the conviction that building safe, interpretable AI is not only compatible with building powerful AI, but inseparable from it. His landmark essay 'Machines of Loving Grace' envisions AI compressing decades of scientific progress into years, potentially eliminating most disease and radically expanding human prosperity.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Anthropic
- **Organizations:** Anthropic, OpenAI (former), Baidu AI (former), Google Brain (former)
- **From:** San Francisco, California, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Secondary Education, Lowell High School, Attended (Physics/Math), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), BS, Physics, Stanford University, MS/PhD, Biophysics, Princeton University, Postdoctoral Scholar (Cancer Detection Research), Stanford University School of Medicine
- **Known for:** Co-founded Anthropic (2021), now valued at $380 billion, Co-inventor of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), used industry-wide, Led development of GPT-2 and GPT-3 as VP of Research at OpenAI

## Career timeline

- **2000** — Named to USA Physics Olympiad team
- **2006** — Father Riccardo dies of rare illness while Dario is at Princeton; switches focus from theoretical physics to biology
- **2007** — Awarded Hertz Fellowship for graduate study
- **2011** — Completes PhD at Princeton with dissertation on collective neural circuit behavior
- **2012** — Wins Hertz Thesis Prize for outstanding doctoral dissertation
- **2011-2014** — Postdoctoral researcher at Stanford School of Medicine studying cancer detection
- **2014** — Joins Baidu's AI research team under Andrew Ng
- **2015** — Co-authors Deep Speech 2 at Baidu (MIT Technology Review top 10 breakthrough of 2016)
- **2015-2016** — Joins Google Brain as Deep Learning Researcher
- **2016** — Joins OpenAI as researcher; co-authors 'Concrete Problems in AI Safety'
- **2018** — Promoted to VP of Research at OpenAI; leads GPT-2 development
- **2020** — Co-authors foundational scaling laws paper (Kaplan et al.); leads GPT-3 development; co-invents RLHF
- **2021** — Departs OpenAI; co-founds Anthropic with sister Daniela and six colleagues (February 1)
- **2022** — Anthropic launches Claude and publishes Constitutional AI methodology
- **2023** — Anthropic raises $7B+ at $30B valuation; Claude 2 released; testifies before US Senate on AI regulation
- **2024** — Publishes 'Machines of Loving Grace' essay; named TIME 100; Anthropic revenue accelerates
- **2025** — Named TIME 100; 60 Minutes appearance; Anthropic reaches $183B valuation; raises $13B Series F
- **2026** — Publishes 'The Adolescence of Technology'; pledges 80% of wealth to charity; Anthropic valued at $380B; named TIME 100 again

## Achievements

- Co-founded Anthropic (2021), now valued at $380 billion
- Co-inventor of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), used industry-wide
- Led development of GPT-2 and GPT-3 as VP of Research at OpenAI
- Co-authored 'Concrete Problems in AI Safety' (2016) — one of the most cited AI safety papers
- Co-authored foundational scaling laws paper (Kaplan et al., 2020)
- Co-authored Deep Speech 2 at Baidu (MIT Technology Review top 10 breakthrough, 2016)
- Hertz Thesis Prize winner (2012)
- Hertz Fellowship recipient (2007)
- TIME 100 Most Influential People — 2025 and 2026
- TIME 'Architects of AI' recognition — Person of the Year 2025 coverage
- ~173,000 Google Scholar citations; h-index of 34
- USA Physics Olympiad team member (2000)
- Pioneer of Constitutional AI methodology for safer AI training
- Pledged 80% of $7B personal wealth to charitable causes (2026)

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Met with Indian PM Modi to discuss Anthropic's expansion to India; noted Claude Code use is up 5x since June 2025
- **2026-04** — Named with Daniela Amodei on TIME 100 Most Influential People 2026; Google agrees to invest up to $40B in Anthropic at ~$350B pre-money valuation
- **2026-02** — Anthropic valued at $380B; Forbes estimates Dario's net worth at $7 billion; refused Pentagon request to remove Claude surveillance bans
- **2026-01** — Published 'The Adolescence of Technology' (20,000-word essay on AI risks); pledged 80% of wealth to charity; warned Davos AI could displace 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs
- **2025-11** — Appeared on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper; named TIME 'Architect of AI' in Person of the Year coverage
- **2025-09** — Anthropic closes $13B Series F at $183B valuation; told Axios chips may be 'only advantage we have' over China
- **2025-04** — Named to TIME 100 Most Influential People 2025
- **2025-01** — Published 'On DeepSeek and Export Controls'; co-wrote op-ed with former US deputy NSA calling for stronger GPU export controls

## Links

- Website: https://www.darioamodei.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dario-amodei-3934934/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/DarioAmodei

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dario-amodei
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-04