Palantir alum and founder
Bob McGrew
Co-founder at Arda
Co-founder of Arda, a factory AI startup. Was Palantir's second engineer and later ran its engineering team, then became OpenAI's Chief Research Officer.
Studied at Stanford and interned at PayPal. Joined Palantir as its second engineer, built early products for intelligence customers and went on to lead engineering. Joined OpenAI part time in 2016 and full time in 2017, rising to Chief Research Officer before leaving in 2024. Co-founded Arda, which raised about $70M at a $700M valuation in Mar 2026.
At Palantir
- Second engineer
- Engineering lead
- 2005 to 2016
Career
- early 2000s: PayPal intern
- c. 2005-2015: Palantir, second engineer then engineering lead
- 2016-2024: OpenAI, rising to Chief Research Officer
- 2026-now: Arda, co-founder