The 50 companies that produced the most founders (2026)

A founder factory is a company whose people leave to start companies of their own. This ranks every company in the graph by how many of its alumni — people who founded it or worked there — went on to found at least one company, counting only ventures started no earlier than the company itself.

Refreshed 2026-09-13 · updates nightly

#	Company	Sector	HQ	Founded	Founders	Companies started
1	Google	Software & IT	Mountain View, USA	1998	149	185
2	Facebook	Media & Entertainment	Menlo Park, USA	2004	47	65
3	Microsoft	Enterprise Software	Redmond, USA	1975	36	61
4	PayPal	Fintech	San Jose, USA	1998	27	71
5	Yahoo	Software & IT	Sunnyvale, USA	1994	23	29
6	OpenAI	Artificial Intelligence	San Francisco, USA	2015	23	23
7	Oracle	Enterprise Software	Austin, USA	1977	19	23
8	Apple	Hardware & Electronics	Cupertino, USA	1976	18	41
9	Amazon	Retail & E-commerce	Seattle, USA	1994	17	19
10	Square	Fintech	San Francisco, USA	2009	15	16
11	Uber	Automotive & Mobility	San Francisco, USA	2009	15	16
12	DeepMind	Artificial Intelligence	London, UK	2010	15	15
13	Palantir	Software & IT	Denver, USA	2003	14	27
14	Twitter	Media & Entertainment	San Francisco, USA	2006	14	27
15	Tesla	Automotive & Mobility	Austin, USA	2003	14	22
16	Salesforce	Enterprise Software	San Francisco, USA	1999	14	17
17	McKinsey & Company	Consulting & Services	United States	1926	13	14
18	SpaceX	Aerospace & Space	Hawthorne, USA	2002	11	24
19	Netscape	Software & IT	Mountain View, USA	1994	11	12
20	Flipkart	Retail & E-commerce	Bengaluru, India	2007	11	7
21	Coinbase	Fintech	San Francisco, USA	2012	9	10
22	IBM	Software & IT	United States	1911	8	10
23	Meta Platforms	Software & IT	United States	2004	8	9
24	Bain & Company	Consulting & Services	United States	1973	8	8
25	LinkedIn	Media & Entertainment	Sunnyvale, USA	2002	8	8
26	Diem	Software & IT	Menlo Park, USA	2019	8	6
27	X.com	Fintech	Palo Alto, USA	1999	7	25
28	Waymo	Automotive & Mobility	Mountain View, USA	2009	7	12
29	Rocket Internet	—	Berlin, Germany	2007	7	8
30	Anduril	Aerospace & Space	Costa Mesa, USA	2017	7	6
31	Flickr	Social	Vancouver, Canada	2004	7	4
32	Epirus	Aerospace & Space	—	—	6	17
33	Dell	Software & IT	United States	1984	6	11
34	Justin.tv	Media & Entertainment	San Francisco, USA	2007	6	11
35	DoubleClick	Marketing & Advertising	United States	1996	6	10
36	YouTube	Media & Entertainment	San Bruno, USA	2005	6	10
37	Goldman Sachs	Fintech	United States	1869	6	9
38	Groupon	Marketplace	Chicago, USA	2008	6	9
39	Sun Microsystems	Hardware & Electronics	Santa Clara, USA	1982	6	9
40	Anduril Industries	Aerospace & Space	Costa Mesa, USA	2017	6	5
41	Blue Origin	Aerospace & Space	Kent, USA	2000	6	5
42	VMware	Enterprise Software	Palo Alto, USA	1998	6	5
43	Physical Intelligence	Artificial Intelligence	San Francisco, USA	2024	6	1
44	Physical Intelligence (π)	Artificial Intelligence	United States	—	6	1
45	Editas Medicine	Biotech & Pharma	—	—	5	21
46	Palantir Technologies	Developer Tools	United States	2003	5	21
47	Odeo	Media & Entertainment	San Francisco, USA	2005	5	12
48	Hewlett-Packard	Hardware & Electronics	Palo Alto, USA	1939	5	11
49	Silicon Graphics	Hardware & Electronics	Mountain View, USA	1982	5	10
50	eBay	Marketplace	San Jose, USA	1995	5	8

How this is counted. A person counts as an alumnus of a company if they founded it or worked there. They count towards the company’s score if they went on to found at least one other company that was started no earlier than the company itself. Universities and other non-commercial organisations are pruned from the graph where we can identify them. Data is community-corrected — fix something.