Reid Hoffman
Reid Garrett Hoffman is an American Internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking. He is also chairman of venture capital firm Village Global, a co-founder of Inflection AI, a co-founder of Manas AI, and a board member at Arc Institute.
Hoffman has been an influential figure in political circles, being a member of the Bilderberg Group since at least 2011 and the Council on Foreign Relations since 2015. He has actively participated in political funding and advocacy, contributing to various campaigns and organizations, and has been a vocal proponent of democratic institutions and humanism in technological innovation. As of 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth to be $2.6 billion.
Early life and education
Hoffman was born on August 5, 1967, in Palo Alto, California. He was a year old when his parents, who were both attorneys, got divorced. Hoffman was an avid table-top role-playing gamer as a child and worked as an editor at the game company Chaosium, then based in Oakland, California, near his home.Hoffman attended high school at the progressive Putney School in Vermont, where he engaged in farming activities. He graduated from Stanford University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science in symbolic systems and cognitive science. He was awarded a Marshall Scholarship for graduate study abroad, and he earned a Master of Studies in philosophy from Wolfson College, Oxford, in 1993.
His paternal great-great-great-grandfather was Theophilus Adam Wylie, a Christian Presbyterian minister and Indiana University president pro tempore. Hoffman's uncle, Eric Hoffman, is a writer.
Career
Early years
Hoffman joined Apple Computer in 1994, where he worked on eWorld, an early attempt at building an online service. AOL acquired eWorld in 1996. He later worked at Fujitsu before co-founding his first company, SocialNet.com, in 1997. It focused "on online dating and matching up people with similar interests, like golfers who were looking for partners in their neighborhood."PayPal
Hoffman was a member of PayPal's board of directors at the time it was founded. In January 2000, he left SocialNet and joined PayPal full-time as the company's COO. In June 2000, Hoffman became PayPal's Senior VP of Business Development, after a re-organization of PayPal's executive structure by then-CEO Elon Musk.Microsoft proposed to acquire LinkedIn on June 13, 2016, for $26.2 billion in cash. Hoffman became a Microsoft board member on March 14, 2017.
Artificial intelligence ventures
OpenAI
In 2016, Reid Hoffman was among the first donors to OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research organization established by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others. In February 2018, Elon Musk departed from OpenAI's board, citing potential conflicts with his role at Tesla, due to Tesla's AI development for self-driving cars.Following Musk's exit, OpenAI faced financial challenges due to the shortfall in anticipated funding. With Hoffman's help, OpenAI transitioned to a "capped-profit" model by establishing a for-profit subsidiary to attract investment while maintaining its commitment to ethical AI development. Hoffman led the investment into the for-profit subsidiary through his family foundation, and joined the company's board of directors.
On March 3, 2023, Hoffman resigned from his board seat at OpenAI, citing a desire to avoid conflicts of interest between his board seat at OpenAI, investments in AI technology companies via Greylock Partners, and role as founder of Inflection AI.
Inflection AI
In March 2022, it was announced that Hoffman was co-founding a new startup, Inflection AI, with his long-time friend and Greylock colleague Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind. CNBC reported that "Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Inflection will aim to develop AI software products that make it easier for humans to communicate with computers."In March 2024, Microsoft licensed Inflection AI's technology and hired Mustafa Suleyman, along with Inflection CSO Karén Simonyan and most of the company's 70 employees, in a deal reportedly worth $650 million. Following this transition, Inflection AI hired Sean White as CEO and shifted its focus to enterprise AI solutions.
In September 2024, the UK Competition and Markets Authority cleared Microsoft's hiring of former staff from Inflection AI, the AI startup Hoffman co-founded, along with associated arrangements between the companies.
Manas AI
In January 2025, Hoffman launched Manas AI, an AI-enabled drug discovery startup, together with cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee, with about $25 million in initial funding.ReidAI
In April 2024, Hoffman "sat down" for an interview with an AI deepfake of himself, one of the first public figures to do so. "In their conversation, the two Reids discussed AI regulation, its capabilities, and ways Hoffman can improve his LinkedIn profile." According to Hoffman, the bot was "built on OpenAI's GPT-4 and trained on over 20 years' worth of material provided by Hoffman's public speaking engagements and the books he's published." Hoffman told Axios' Mike Allen that ReidAI's purpose was to show "the positive things we can do with all these technologies."Other artificial intelligence ventures
In late 2022, Hoffman and others invested a total of $2.2 million in JusticeText. "eared towards public defenders," the platform "stores, catalogs, analyzes and then shares video evidence, hoping to increase transparency around criminal matters."As of May 2023, Hoffman and Greylock Partners have invested in at least 37 AI companies. For example, they were an early investor in Tome, makers of productivity software driven by AI. The company claims it is the fastest productivity software maker in reaching 1 million users.
Hoffman has dismissed calls to "pause" the development of advanced AI systems, calling such ideas "foolish" and "anti-humanist." Instead, he has called for the pace of development to be accelerated to help humans solve societal problems. For example, he's pointed to "its potential to transform areas like health care — "giving everyone a medical assistant"; and education — "giving everyone a tutor... I'm a tech optimist, not a tech utopian."
Inc. dubbed Hoffman the "evangelist in chief" for Inflection AI and AI in general, citing his meetings with the likes of President Biden and the Pope to discuss his vision and concerns around AI.
Investing
After the PayPal sale to eBay, Hoffman became one of Silicon Valley's most prolific angel investors. Dave Goldberg, former CEO of SurveyMonkey, said that Hoffman "is the person you want to talk to when you are starting a company." In 2009, Hoffman joined Greylock Partners.According to David Kirkpatrick's book The Facebook Effect, Hoffman arranged the first meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel, which led to Thiel's initial $500,000 angel investment in Facebook. Hoffman invested alongside Thiel in Facebook's first financing round.
Since 2009, Hoffman has provided venture capital to dozens of businesses across industries, including consumer and transportation technology, finance, and artificial intelligence. Examples include Airbnb, where he led the company's Series A financing round, Aurora Innovation, Taptap Send, and Helion Energy.
He served on Zynga's board of directors from March 2008 to June 2014 and currently serves on several public boards, including Aurora, Joby Aviation, and Microsoft.
Hoffman has made multiple investments in transportation technology companies, including Aurora, Convoy, Nauto, Nuro, and Joby Aviation, among others.
An early advocate for cryptocurrency, Hoffman led Greylock's 2014 Series A financing round in Xapo, a company that developed a bitcoin wallet product.
In August 2023, Hoffman said he will not serve as a general partner for Greylock's upcoming funds, but will continue to serve as a venture partner.
Hoffman has invested in California Forever, a company developing a planned city in Solano County, California.
Teaching
Hoffman teaches the free Stanford University class "Blitzscaling".In 2023, Hoffman delivered the Commencement Speech at Bologna Business School, urging students to prepare for the transformative potential of AI as a tool for amplifying human creativity, collaboration, and progress.
In 2024, Hoffman delivered a keynote lecture at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, balance progress and responsibility while shaping a future where technology amplifies human potential and interconnectedness.
Hoffman delivered a lecture at the LSE School of Public Policy focusing on the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on society, governance, and global dynamics. He was appointed a Visiting Senior Fellow at the school in February 2025.
In May 2025, Chiba Institute of Technology conferred an honorary doctorate to Hoffman along with Laurene Powell Jobs and Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in honor of their contributions to society.
Together with Prof. Fred Kofman, Senior Leadership Coach at Google, former MIT Professor and Zur Genosar, Israeli businessman and mindfulness teacher, the three founded The Hoffman Kofman Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to develop leaders into active exemplars of excellence who elicit internal commitment to a shared mission of creating social and economic value from their followers and team members.