
Venture with Grace
Jenny Xiao, Leonis Capital Partner on AI Investing and Emerging Talent
Jenny Xiao is a Partner at Leonis Capital, a research-driven venture capital firm backing technical founders and emerging talent at the earliest stages of AI. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~She brings a rare combination of AI research, economics, and investing experience, having previously worked as an early researcher at OpenAI and as a researcher at Epoch AI. Jenny holds a Ph.D. in AI and economics from Columbia University, where her research explored the intersection of technology, economics, and artificial intelligence. Before joining Leonis, she was an early employee at OpenAI and left shortly after ChatGPT’s rapid rise to build a research-driven investment platform with her partner, Jay Zhao. At Leonis, she focuses on identifying and supporting AI-native companies at the seed and pre-seed stages, including investments in companies such as Viktor AI, MaintainX, Motion, Spline, and Bud. Her research has been featured in Nature, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, and she has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. She also serves as an independent trustee of the Corgi ETF Trust.Topics How Jenny’s experience at OpenAI and in AI research shapes the way she evaluates technical founders and emerging AI companies What the next generation of AI-native companies is building at the seed and pre-seed stages. Lessons from building a research-driven venture firm focused on identifying exceptional technical talent #ArtificialIntelligence #VentureCapital #AIInvesting #Startups #FutureOfAI

