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AlphaGo Co-Creator Thore Graepel Leaves Google DeepMind to Seek Funding for Metis Reasoning

September 24, 2026 at 11:03 EDT

Foundation Models
AI Agents
Funding & M&A

Thore Graepel, a co-creator of Google DeepMind's AlphaGo, left Alphabet's AI lab this summer and is seeking tens of millions of dollars for a new startup called Metis Reasoning, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is working on AI that can respond to unfamiliar problems and decide what to do, with possible applications in robotics, science and engineering.

Sep. 24, 2026 · Metis Reasoning

AlphaGo Veteran Starts a Reasoning Bet

Thore Graepel has left Google DeepMind and is seeking early funding for Metis Reasoning, a startup aimed at AI that can tackle unfamiliar problems and decide what to do.

10s of millions

Initial funding target

$1.1B

Comparable seed round for Ineffable Intelligence

$5.1B

Ineffable Intelligence valuation

Comparable AlphaGo-Founder Financing

$1.1B

Seed round

$5.1B

Valuation

The market is already assigning large values to startups led by researchers linked to AlphaGo-era breakthroughs.

The Startup Thesis

Unfamiliar problem→Reason under uncertainty→Choose an action→Apply in science, engineering or robotics

Why backers care

AlphaGo linked reinforcement learning, search and planning to a breakthrough that reset expectations for AI capability.

What remains unproven

Metis Reasoning has not announced a product, customers or a closed financing round, and open-ended real-world reasoning is harder than board games.

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