Silurian AI is a technology company.
Silurian builds and customizes foundation models for simulating the impact of weather on your assets and infrastructure.
Silurian AI has raised $500K across 1 funding round.
Silurian AI has raised $500K in total across 1 funding round.
Silurian AI has raised $500K in total across 1 funding round.
Silurian AI's investors include Atlassian Ventures, Bond, Felicis Ventures, Next47, Partech Ventures, Seedcamp, Theory Ventures, Tim Sadler.
Silurian AI is a Seattle-based startup developing AI foundation models for Earth system simulations, starting with high-resolution weather forecasting. It builds the Generative Forecasting Transformer (GFT), a 1.5B parameter model that generates global weather predictions up to 14 days ahead at 11km resolution, outperforming NOAA and ECMWF by up to 30% on key variables like hurricanes.[1][3] The company serves industries such as insurance (hurricane risk), aviation (delay predictions), utilities (grid load during heatwaves), energy, climate, and agriculture by solving the problem of outdated, inaccurate geospatial simulations with rapid, energy-efficient AI forecasts via its Artificial Planetary Intelligence API.[2][3] Backed by Y Combinator's summer 2024 cohort, Silurian shows strong growth momentum, including an upcoming model upgrade and plans for tailored models using customer data.[1][3]
Silurian was founded in June 2024 by CEO Eugenios (Gino) Gupta, Chief Scientist Oleksandr (Sasha) Bodnar, Chief Engineering Officer Nikhil Shankar, and initially Mark Baum (who later departed).[1][4] Gupta (Stanford CS PhD) and Bodnar (Cambridge PhD) are Microsoft AI veterans who co-created ClimaX and Aurora, the first foundation models for weather/climate, with research published in Nature and covered by Bloomberg and WSJ; Shankar (Michigan MS) handled engineering from AWS SageMaker; the Chief Business Officer brings energy private equity experience from BNP Paribas and BP acquisitions.[3][4] The idea emerged from their work on large-scale AI simulations at Microsoft Research and Google Brain, addressing gaps in traditional numerical weather prediction amid rising demands for accurate Earth simulations.[1][3] Early traction came via Y Combinator, launching GFT in August 2024, which accurately predicted Hurricane Beryl's Texas landfall when agencies failed.[1][3]
Silurian rides the AI foundation model wave for physical simulations, upgrading "Earth’s simulation infrastructure" amid climate volatility, energy transitions, and geopolitical pushes like China's weather ambitions or U.S. privatization debates.[1][3] Timing is ideal post-2024 AI scaling laws, leveraging public petabyte datasets for models that enable proactive decisions in high-stakes sectors—e.g., utilities avoiding grid failures, insurers pricing hurricanes accurately.[2][3][5] Market forces like NOAA's $100M upgrades and rising AI efficiency favor Silurian's lean approach, positioning it to influence the ecosystem by open-sourcing API access, fostering developer adoption, and expanding to energy/climate verticals.[1][3]
Silurian is primed to disrupt weather-dependent industries with its next model upgrade and tailored APIs, scaling from GFT to full Earth system intelligence for energy grids and agriculture.[1][2][3] Trends like multimodal AI, proprietary data integration, and climate resilience will accelerate its growth, potentially capturing share from legacy agencies as privatization and global competition intensify.[1] Its influence may evolve into a core infrastructure layer for artificial planetary intelligence, empowering startups and enterprises—watch for partnerships like TotalEnergies and broader API public rollout to solidify its edge.[3][5] This Y Combinator star exemplifies how AI vets are redefining real-world forecasting, tying back to its mission of turning outdated guesses into precise, actionable simulations.[3]
Silurian AI has raised $500K across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $500K Seed in September 2024.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2024 | $500K Seed | Atlassian Ventures, Bond, Felicis Ventures, Next47, Partech Ventures, Seedcamp, Theory Ventures, Tim Sadler |