Flapping Airplanes

Flapping Airplanes is an artificial intelligence research laboratory dedicated to developing data-efficient training techniques for large language models. Rather than relying on traditional industry recruitment, the organization prioritizes hiring raw technical talent, such as high school prodigies and international mathematics olympians, to build foundational models from first principles. This specific strategy aims to challenge the established scaling approaches currently dominating the broader machine learning sector. In February 2026, the research enterprise secured $180 million in seed funding from a syndicate of prominent venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, GV, Index Ventures, and Menlo Ventures. Furthermore, the laboratory operates in close association with the startup incubator Prod, an entity that has historically backed technology companies with a combined valuation exceeding $50 billion. Flapping Airplanes was officially founded by Ben Spector, Asher Spector, and Aidan Smith.