AlphaChip Co-founder Named to TIME100 AI, Launches Ricursive
AlphaChip co-founder Anna Goldie was named to the TIME100 AI list, using the occasion to reflect on AI chip design's journey from skepticism to industry transformation, and announced updates on Ricursive, the company she founded with Azalia Mirhoseini.
Confirmed
- Goldie recalled that when she started AlphaChip in 2017, many believed AI methods couldn't be applied to chip design, and reinforcement learning was seen as suited only to games or toy problems; today AI is reshaping the world, and chip design is no longer considered a boring field.
- According to Goldie, since the AlphaChip paper was published in Nature, its superhuman chip layouts have been taped out across five generations of Google TPUs, Axion CPUs, Pixel phones, and Waymo chips — to her knowledge, a first for the field.
- Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini founded Ricursive last year with a mission to close the loop between AI and the chips that power it: transforming semiconductor design and AI itself with AI, covering the full pipeline from models to GDS. She views this as the highest-leverage path to advancing the frontier of intelligence.
- Ricursive's team is stacked with chip-world talent, including multiple IMO, IPhO, and IOAA gold medalists.
Why it matters
- AlphaChip's deployment scope (five TPU generations, Axion CPUs, Pixel, Waymo) shows RL-driven chip placement has moved from research controversy to large-scale engineering practice.
- Ricursive represents the AlphaChip team's startup continuation; if the AI–chip design loop holds, it could reshape both semiconductor design workflows and AI hardware itself.
2026-08-28 ~ 2026-08-28 · 7 related posts
Primary sources
- Anna Goldie named to TIME100 AI, recounts founding Ricursive and AI chip design work — annadgoldie ·
- AlphaChip layouts taped out in five TPU generations, Axion CPUs and Waymo chips — annadgoldie ·
- Ex-Google's Anna Goldie builds Ricursive, stacking chip legends to design chips with AI — annadgoldie ·
- [source] Anna Goldie named to TIME100 AI, recounts founding Ricursive and AI chip design work — annadgoldie · 2026-08-28
- AlphaChip creators on TIME100 AI: RL chip design dismissed as impossible now ships in TPUs — annadgoldie · 2026-08-28
- DeepMind's AlphaChip: From 'Impossible' to Shaping the Future of Chip Design — annadgoldie · 2026-08-28
- [source] AlphaChip layouts taped out in five TPU generations, Axion CPUs and Waymo chips — annadgoldie · 2026-08-28
- DeepMind Alumni Found Ricursive to Close the Loop Between AI and Chips — annadgoldie · 2026-08-28
- [source] Ex-Google's Anna Goldie builds Ricursive, stacking chip legends to design chips with AI — annadgoldie · 2026-08-28
- RicursiveAI Co-founders Named to TIME100 AI List — Azaliamirh · 2026-08-28