Yoav Shoham
Computer scientist, professor emeritus at Stanford University and former Google principal scientist; co-founder and chairman of the Israeli AI company AI21 Labs
| Yoav Shoham
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Shoham, from the AI21 Labs website |
| Occupation | Computer scientist; company executive |
| Known for | Co-founder of AI21 Labs |
Yoav Shoham is a computer scientist and entrepreneur, a professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford University and a former principal scientist at Google. He co-founded the Israeli artificial-intelligence company AI21 Labs with Ori Goshen and Amnon Shashua, and is described by the company as its chairman.[1][2]
Background
Contrary Research says that Shoham holds a PhD in computer science from Yale University, that at Stanford he wrote on agent-oriented programming, game theory and multi-agent systems, and that he founded the companies TradingDynamics, bought by Ariba, and Timeful and Katango, both bought by Google.[2] No source found describes military service.
AI21 Labs
Contrary Research says that AI21 Labs was founded in Israel in 2017 by Amnon Shashua, Yoav Shoham and Ori Goshen; Goshen was introduced to Shoham through his wife, who ran a programming bootcamp with Shoham, and Shashua then joined them. Its first product was the writing tool Wordtune, followed by the Jurassic and Jamba language models and the Maestro agent platform.[2] In May 2025 Ctech reported that it was raising a $300 million Series D backed by Google and Nvidia, bringing its total funding to $636 million.[3]
On 12 January 2026, after Shashua had told Bloomberg that "There are talks with Nvidia and others, but nothing is close enough to talk about it in the media", the company said that it "has not held discussions with Nvidia about an acquisition", according to Globes.[4] In April 2026 Ctech wrote that Calcalist had earlier reported advanced talks with Nvidia at a valuation of $2 billion to $3 billion, and, citing The Information, that AI21 was in talks with Nebius.[5] In May 2026 Ynet reported that the Nebius talks had ended in a business co-operation agreement and that AI21 would cut its staff from about 180 to about 70.[6]
Contrary Research described Shoham as co-chief executive in 2025; in November 2026 the company's website listed him as "Chairman & Co-Founder".[2][1]
| Organisation | Role | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Stanford University | Professor emeritus of computer science | [1] |
| Principal scientist (former) | [1] | |
| AI21 Labs | Co-founder (2017); co-chief executive; chairman | [2][1] |
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 AI21 Labs, About AI21 Labs, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Sunshine Chen, AI21 Labs Contrary Research, 4 September 2025, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Meir Orbach, AI21 Labs raising $300 million Series D to build reliable AI for enterprise Ctech, 10 May 2025, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Assaf Gilead, AI21 Labs denies Nvidia acquisition talks Globes, 12 January 2026, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Ctech, Nebius in talks to acquire AI21 after Nvidia deal falls through Ctech, 9 April 2026, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Meir Orbach, Amnon Shashua's AI firm cuts over 60% of staff after sale talks collapse Ynetnews, 18 May 2026, accessed 10 November 2026.