Aemon
Winter 2026 NewThe Forward-Deployed AI Research Engineer
Aemon is the first autonomous research engineer that delivers state-of-the-art solutions to your engineering problems. It generates, tests, and evolves thousands of approaches at machine speed to discover optimal solutions beyond what human experts can find. Aemon already set a new world record on an NP-hard math optimization problem with <$10 of compute, beating the previous record set by Google DeepMind in 2025. Ray and Richard (twin brothers) dropped out of UWaterloo and UIUC to build Aemon. They published at top AI conferences like ICLR and EMNLP before turning 20.
AI Investor Summary
Aemon is building the first autonomous research engineer, capable of discovering optimal solutions to complex engineering problems at machine speed. Their team, with deep technical expertise from Google and Meta, has already demonstrated groundbreaking capabilities by setting a new world record on an NP-hard problem with minimal compute, surpassing DeepMind. This positions Aemon to revolutionize R&D across industries by unlocking unprecedented problem-solving efficiency.
Key Highlights
- ● World record achievement on an NP-hard problem with exceptionally low compute cost, surpassing Google DeepMind.
- ● Founders with strong technical pedigrees from Google and Meta, and top university education.
- ● Addresses a fundamental bottleneck in engineering and scientific R&D with a novel AI approach.
Risk Factors
- ● Generalizability of the AI's problem-solving capabilities beyond the specific benchmark achieved.
- ● Demonstrating consistent, repeatable value and revenue generation in a B2B context.
- ● Competition from established AI labs and other startups in the AI for R&D space.
Founders
Richard Zhou is the co-founder of Aemon, a Y Combinator startup focused on AI-powered financial analysis. His background includes significant experience in software engineering and a strong academic foundation in computer science. Zhou has a proven track record of building and scaling technology solutions.
Ray Xu is the co-founder of Aemon, a Y Combinator startup focused on AI-powered solutions. His professional background includes significant experience in software engineering and product development, with a focus on building scalable and innovative technologies. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.
Score Breakdown
Strong technical team with impressive backgrounds from Google and Meta, and advanced degrees from top-tier universities (Stanford, CMU). Dropping out of UWaterloo/UIUC to build this signals conviction. Twin brothers dynamic can be a strength or weakness, but their prior experience is highly relevant. [Boost +1: Founder from Google; Founder from Google]
The market for accelerating R&D and engineering problem-solving is massive and growing, especially with the increasing complexity of AI and scientific challenges. The timing is excellent as AI capabilities are rapidly advancing. Regulatory tailwinds are generally positive for AI innovation, though specific applications might face scrutiny later. [Boost +0.5: Hot sector: ai]
The core technical differentiation is significant, demonstrated by beating DeepMind's record on an NP-hard problem with minimal compute. This suggests a novel approach to AI-driven problem-solving. The defensibility comes from this unique capability. UX quality is TBD at this stage, and platform potential is high if they can generalize their approach.
Early stage with no explicit revenue or user numbers provided. The world record is a strong proof-of-concept, but it's a single benchmark. Partnerships and significant press coverage are absent beyond announcements of their existence and achievement. Investor interest is implied by YC acceptance, but concrete traction metrics are missing.
News
Aemon AI autonomously solves complex problems beyond human expertise, setting a new circle packing record with under $10 in compute costs.
Aemon is an AI R&D engineer that reads state-of-the-art research, then generates and evolves thousands of approaches at machine speed to discover optimal solutions, having set a new world record on a classic NP-hard optimization challenge with less than $10 of compute.
Aemon presents itself as an AI R&D engineer that automatically finds state-of-the-art solutions by conceptualizing problems, evolving solutions through iterative self-improvement, and allowing human steerability, with a notable achievement of setting a new world record on a circle packing problem.
YC-backed startup Aemon, an autonomous research engineer, has set a new world record on an NP-hard math optimization problem, circle packing, using under $10 in compute, demonstrating its capability to discover optimal solutions beyond human experts.
Aemon, a YC W26 startup, outperformed Google DeepMind on a decades-old math problem (circle packing) using less than $10 in compute, demonstrating the power of algorithmic approach over massive computational resources.
Aemon is an AI R&D engineer that reads research, generates and evolves thousands of approaches at machine speed to discover optimal solutions, and recently set a new world record on an NP-hard math optimization problem with less than $10 of compute, beating Google DeepMind's AlphaEvolve.
Y Combinator's Winter 2026 batch includes Aemon AI, a startup focused on automated scientific discovery, which broke a standing world record on a circle-packing problem in under 15 iterations with minimal compute cost.
Quick Info
- Batch
- Winter 2026
- Team Size
- 3
- Location
- Unspecified
- Founders
- 2
- Scraped
- 4/10/2026