Y Combinator Announces its First AI Startup School

SF-based startup accelerator Y Combinator is launching its inaugural AI Startup School on 16-17 June in San Francisco. The event will bring together 2,000 top AI students and researchers.

“I’m proud to announce YC’s first AI Startup School,” wrote Garry Tan, CEO and president of YC, on Linkedin. “It’s a totally free conference bringing together the next top CS and AI minds in the world.” 

The event will feature leaders including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, and World Labs CEO Fei-Fei Li, among others, who will share insights on building the future of AI.

Register here to join the waitlist.

The event is open to final-year undergraduates, master’s and PhD candidates in AI, as well as recent graduates in fields such as computer science, applied math, robotics, and AI research.

According to the announcement, YC will also cover up to $500 for airfare and assist attendees in finding accommodation with SF-based founders. 

Last month, YC also announced applications for its first-ever Spring 2025 batch. The deadline to apply is Feb 11, 2025, at 8 pm PT.  Applicants will receive a response by March 12. 

In September last year, Tan announced that the startup accelerator was expanding to four batches a year. Traditionally, batches ran between June and September (Summer Batch) and January and April (Winter Batch), but from 2024 onwards, it has added the Spring and Fall sessions. 

Founded in 2005, YC is one of the most sought-after places for entrepreneurs worldwide. Since then, YC has invested in over 4,500 companies, including Airbnb, Meesho, Zepto, Dropbox, Stripe, and Reddit. Since 2022, the startup accelerator’s standard deal has been to invest $500,000 in each selected startup.