Mirendil, an ex-Anthropic startup building self-improving AI, in talks to raise up to $1B at a $5B valuation
Bloomberg reported on Sept 22, 2026 that Mirendil, founded this year by former Anthropic researchers to build models that improve themselves with little human input (recursive self-improvement), is in talks to raise up to $1B at a $5B valuation led by Kleiner Perkins, five times its valuation from a $200M seed three months earlier.
Key facts
- Round: up to ~$1B at a $5B valuation, Kleiner Perkins in talks to lead, Andreessen Horowitz in discussions (Bloomberg, anonymous sources)
- Prior round: $200M seed at a $1B valuation led by Kleiner Perkins and a16z about three months earlier
- Goal: recursive self-improvement via a cheaper, more automated way to build models, with strong safeguards; 20+ staff
- Some outlets reported a smaller ~$500M round; the size was not final
What happened
Mirendil is one of the "neolabs" raising large sums without a product. Its explicit aim of recursive self-improvement made the round notable in a month when RSI was at the center of safety debates, including OpenAI's call for RSI standards and bills to ban it.
Why it matters
It shows investors paying up for teams that openly target automated AI R&D, as policymakers discuss restricting exactly that.
Caveat: talks, not a closed round; founders' names were not confirmed in the sources read.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created (sweep 2026-09-29)
Related events
- OpenAI calls for US-led global technical standards for frontier AI, including recursive self-improvement ★★★
- Hinton, Bengio, Pachocki, Jack Clark and others: automating AI R&D could trigger an 'intelligence explosion' ★★★★
Sources (3)
- pressBloomberg: Ex-Anthropic staffers' AI startup in talks to raise at $5 billion value
- pressYahoo Finance (Bloomberg syndication)
- pressTech Funding News: Mirendil in talks for $5B valuation 3 months after $1B seed
id: 2026-09-22-mirendil-5b-valuation-talks · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline