AI Unicorns Are Everywhere and Their Founders Are Getting Rich

When Mustafa Suleyman partnered with billionaire LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman last year on a startup called Inflection AI, he saw the potential in their prized project: a chatbot meant to be an “emotional companion that is kind, encouraging and rational.”

Now, so do deep-pocketed investors.

A $225 million funding round in May 2022, long before markets were whipped into a frenzy over artificial intelligence, vaulted the firm past the $1 billion “unicorn” threshold. Inflection AI declined to disclose its current valuation. But Suleyman says it’s now worth billions — giving Suleyman a sizeable fortune in the hundreds of millions.

Investor ...