A growing number of former OpenAI employees are launching AI startups amid an investment boom in the sector. Notably, OpenAI is leading a funding round for Periodic Labs, a new company founded by Liam Fedus, OpenAI's former vice president of research for post-training, which is valued at $1 billion. Periodic Labs focuses on applying AI to material science and has raised more than $100 million. Additionally, another group of ex-OpenAI staffers secured seed funding from Benchmark for a startup specializing in reinforcement learning. This trend reflects a broader talent shift in the AI industry, with companies like Anthropic attracting engineers from OpenAI and DeepMind. Industry leaders emphasize that startups should focus on solving problems that large foundational AI models cannot address, given the dominance of major tech firms. OpenAI and Benchmark, along with venture capital firms such as a16z, continue to back these emerging ventures.