Nine people left OpenAI in 2026 to found, build, or prepare startups — Core Automation is the clearest cluster

Asked:

“who moved from open this year and building a startup?” — read as OpenAI departures in calendar 2026, through September 30, 2026.

A web-verified shortlist, not an exhaustive census: nine 2026 OpenAI departures (January–September 2026) tied to a startup move, drawn from nine independent news sources. Three ventures are named (Core Automation, ChronicleBio, Conduit); four people have not disclosed a product; one joined an existing startup rather than founding one, and one move was reported as in talks rather than completed.

founder, named startup founder, startup unnamed or undisclosed building or joining, not the founder

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Core Automation is the one clustered founder move: Jerry Tworek (founder) and Joanne Jang both left in April 2026 to build “the world’s most automated AI lab”, and the company reportedly drew researchers from Anthropic and Google DeepMind too. businessinsider.com

Miles Wang’s AI drug-discovery move was reported as in talks — at a $2B valuation — not as a completed launch. techcrunch.com

Naomi Bashkansky joined Conduit, an existing brain-computer-interface startup, as a founding researcher — she is not reported as its founder. startupfortune.com

Brad Lightcap and Ian Silber have disclosed no product: Lightcap said only that he is “starting something new”, and Silber plans to build with former OpenAI colleagues Joseph Flynn and Thomas Dimson. benzinga.com

The nine moves, compared

Person	OpenAI role	Departed	Venture	Building	Involvement	Source

Web-verified shortlist of 2026 OpenAI departures tied to startup activity, found through September 30, 2026; 9 people kept from a 13-row candidate table (one duplicate and three non-qualifying rows omitted per review). Dates are departure month or day as reported; each row links its single news source. Not exhaustive.

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