PeopleofSuperintelligence

The median person in the directory who works at a company is 17 years younger than the median person at a university

Data as of

Living people with a known birth year
502
Median age, universities
63
Median age, companies
46
Median age, institutes and labs
57

The median person in the directory who works at a company is about 46. At a university the median is about 63.

Our biographies do not give birth dates. This post uses birth years from Wikidata, checked against the Wikipedia article where one exists, for the people we could match to a Wikidata item with evidence beyond the name. That gives a birth year for 560 of the 1,837 people, 502 of them living. We keep the year only, so each age is about right to one year. Better-known and older people are more likely to have a birth year in Wikidata, so this sample leans toward them.

The median age is about 63 at universities, 46 at companies, 57 at institutes and labsLiving people with a known birth year, by the kind of their first listed current organization. Each dot is a person; ages are about right to one year.

Dots for 440 people placed by age in three rows: universities (median 63), companies (median 46), institutes and labs (median 57).

Source: birth years from Wikidata, checked against Wikipedia, for people matched to a Wikidata item; current organization from People of Superintelligence career records, as of 14 October 2026.

Data table
Kind of organizationPeopleMedian ageYoungestOldest
Universities277633093
Companies109462282
Institutes and labs54573279

Milestones

The career records date degrees, positions and companies that people founded. For people with a known birth year, the chart below gives the age at each milestone.

The median person earned a doctorate at about 28 and founded a first company at about 37Median age (dot) and the middle half of people (bar) at each milestone, for people with a known birth year and a dated milestone.

doctorate at a median of about 28 (262 people), first company position at a median of about 35 (285 people) and first company founded at a median of about 37 (143 people).

Source: birth years from Wikidata and Wikipedia; milestone years from People of Superintelligence career records (degrees and positions the biographies date).

Data table
MilestonePeople25th percentileMedian75th percentile
Doctorate262272830
First company position285293544
First company founded143303744

Lab leaders

38 of the lab leaders in the directory have a known birth year. Their median age is about 44. The youngest are Matt Deitke (about 25), Dan Hendrycks (about 32) and Nick Frosst (about 33). The oldest are Larry Ellison (about 82), Ray Kurzweil (about 78) and William Dally (about 66).

Career data comes from the biographies on this site and from OpenAlex author records, as of 14 October 2026. People whose OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mixed are left out of citation figures.