How a 24-year-old Stanford Ph.D. dropout lured some of Meta’s brightest minds to join her AI math startup
**Axiom Math: Revolutionizing Mathematics with AI Under the Leadership of Carina Hong**
Carina Hong, a 24-year-old Stanford dropout, is making waves in the tech world with her ambitious startup, Axiom Math. Founded in March 2023, Axiom aims to develop an AI mathematician capable of solving complex mathematical problems that have stumped experts for decades. Recently, the company announced a remarkable $64 million seed funding round, attracting top talent from Meta’s AI research teams, including the Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) lab and Google’s Brain team, which merged into DeepMind in 2023. This influx of expertise is critical as Axiom tackles advanced mathematics, a field considered essential for achieving superintelligence in AI.
Hong’s vision for Axiom Math extends beyond mere problem-solving; she aims to create a legacy that resonates with her team. “When the problem is hard enough, talent density gets very high, and that makes you a magnet for other great thinkers,” she explained. This philosophy has helped her attract leading researchers like Shubho Sengupta, Axiom’s CTO, whom she met serendipitously at a coffee shop, and other notable figures from Meta. Despite the competitive landscape, where Meta offered substantial retention packages, Axiom’s potential for long-term impact and its exhilarating mission have drawn top talent eager to contribute to groundbreaking advancements in mathematics.
Moreover, Axiom’s ambitions are not limited to theoretical math; the company envisions practical applications across various domains, including hardware and software verification, quantitative finance, and cryptography. With a non-hierarchical culture that values collaboration and innovation, Hong has also recruited renowned mathematician Ken Ono, further bolstering Axiom’s intellectual capital. As the startup continues to grow, it embodies a new generation of thinkers and innovators dedicated to reshaping industries through the power of advanced mathematics and AI.
Axiom Math founder Carina Hong.
Courtesy of Axiom Math
24-year-old Carina Hong has recruited top Meta AI researchers to her startup, Axiom Math.
The company has raised $64 million in seed funding to build an AI mathematician.
Hong said employees want Axiom’s mission to be their legacy.
A 24-year-old Stanford dropout has wooed top Meta AI researchers to her nascent startup, which is building an AI mathematician.
Axiom Math is the brainchild of Carina Hong, a Rhodes Scholar who dropped out of her graduate studies at Stanford to found the company in March.
Axiom, which recently said it solved two Erdos math problems that eluded mathematicians for decades, announced a $64 million seed round in September.
The company has 17 employees, many of whom hail from Meta’s Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) lab, as well as
Meta’s GenAI team
and Google Brain, which
merged into DeepMind
in 2023.
Axiom is tackling advanced math, which AI researchers and leaders consider essential to achieving superintelligence. Hong says this mission helped her draw top talent from Big Tech companies.
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“One thing I heard from some of the top researchers and mathematicians I’ve recruited to Axiom is that solving for mathematical superintelligence will be their legacy,” Hong told Business Insider. “When the problem is hard enough, talent density gets very high, and that makes you a magnet for other great thinkers.”
Hong told Business Insider that she focused some of her early recruiting efforts on FAIR because “they consistently deliver amazing research work.”
FAIR is one of the oldest pillars of Meta’s rapidly evolving AI organization, focused on long-term research.
Meta conducted layoffs
on that team in October and later lost its chief scientist,
Yann LeCun
, who announced he was leaving Meta in November to start his own AI startup.
Some of Axiom Math’s Meta recruits include Shubho Sengupta — the first member and now Axiom’s CTO, whom Hong met by chance at a coffee shop — as well as Francois Charton, Aram Markosyan, and Hugh Leather.
Hong said that while Meta offered significant retention packages industry-wide when she was building her team, she wasn’t privy to any specific competing offers.
In a competitive talent market, Axiom’s potential long-term upside played a role in attracting researchers, Hong said. What’s more, she said they have been exhilarated by the mission since day one, when the office was furnished by a plastic folding table and a friend’s spare couch.
Hong isn’t only recruiting from Big Tech. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that she had wooed her former professor, the renowned mathematician Ken Ono.
Hong says she sees age and experience as “sort of manmade concepts,” and has been accustomed to working with more senior researchers during her time in academia. She has also sought to imbue Axiom with a “non-hierarchical” culture.
The company’s mission goes beyond math—another draw for recruits. Hong said Axiom’s commercial applications could include “any domain where you need provably correct reasoning,” such as hardware and software verification, quantitative finance, and cryptography.
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