ARC Prize Foundation

ARC Prize Foundation

AI benchmarks that measure general intelligence and inspire new ideas

Winter 2026ActiveIndustrialsNonprofitAIRemote
Company
https://arcprize.org
ARC Prize builds AI benchmarks that measure general intelligence. Our benchmark, ARC-AGI, has been used by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI. Founded by Mike Knoop and Francois Chollet, we inspire open source artificial general intelligence (AGI) research through benchmarks (the ARC-AGI series), global competitions, research grants, community, and content, we exist to guide researchers, industry, and regulators on the path to AGI. We believe that AGI requires more than just scaling up existing AI models. It demands a fundamental shift towards systems capable of genuine fluid intelligence, the ability to adapt to novel challenges and solve problems efficiently, much like humans do.

Verdict

Medium Signal
Market Opportunity
This is a non-profit foundation, not a traditional revenue-generating startup — monetization is donation/grant-based with AI lab donors including xAI, Google, and others. The mission (AGI benchmarking) is critically important to the AI industry, and influence/mindshare is enormous, but conventional TAM/revenue analysis doesn't cleanly apply. ICP is AI labs, researchers, and regulators.
High Signal
Founder Signal
François Chollet (not on LinkedIn data but well-known as creator of Keras and originator of ARC benchmark at Google) is the intellectual anchor. Mike Knoop is co-founder of Zapier (a major exit/scale success). Greg Kamradt (listed founder/president) has ops/product experience at Digits and Salesforce, plus 100K+ developer community via YouTube — solid operator profile, though LinkedIn not available for full verification.
High Signal
Competition
ARC-AGI is the de facto standard general intelligence benchmark — no direct competitor benchmark has achieved comparable industry adoption across all major labs simultaneously. MMLU, BIG-Bench, and HELM exist but measure different things. The Chollet/Knoop origin story and first-mover status in fluid intelligence benchmarking create a strong moat.
High Signal
Product
ARC-AGI benchmark has demonstrable adoption from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI — named logos with real usage. ARC Prize 2025 attracted 1,454 competing teams and awarded $125,000+ in prizes, showing genuine community scale. ARC-AGI-3 launching March 25, 2026 signals active product roadmap.
OverallA Tier

ARC Prize Foundation is an unusual YC entry — it's a non-profit with genuine industry-wide traction, not a revenue-driven startup. The benchmark is used by every major AI lab, 1,454 teams competed in 2025, and the founding team (Chollet as ARC-AGI inventor, Knoop as Zapier co-founder, Kamradt as capable operator) is exceptional. The main concern for YC evaluation purposes is the non-profit/donation model — this isn't a VC-scale return story. But as an infrastructure-layer influence play on AGI development, the strategic importance is undeniable. Rating as A because the traction and team are real and strong, but the business model mismatch with typical YC expectations caps the tier.

Active Founders

Greg Kamradt
Greg Kamradt
Founder/President

Greg is the president of ARC Prize Foundation. He leads the nonprofit's work building benchmarks that have been used by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI. Previously, Greg led ops + product at Digits (AI Accounting), and spent several years at Salesforce driving strategy, growth, and predictive analytics. Greg is also the founder of Leverage, teaching 100K+ developers how to build their first AI applications through his YouTube channel (66K subs).

ARC Prize Foundation
ARC Prize Foundation
TierA Tier
BatchWinter 2026
Team Size4
StatusActive
LocationRemote