The Search for Silicon Valley’s Most Powerful Woman

In a converted church in San Francisco, the Foundation for American Innovation hosted a black-tie event to promote the new AI religion. The event featured Murati, the founder and CEO of Thinking Machines Lab, who spoke about the history of revolutions. Murati had previously held a low profile as a VP and CTO of OpenAI, but had recently launched her own $12 billion AI startup, which didn't seem to garner much attention during the event.

When interviewed, many seemed to ignore Murati, as they did with other powerful women in Silicon Valley. The conversation briefly shifted to why there isn't a woman as influential as Elon Musk or Sam Altman, with many attributing the lack of powerful women to a lack of a unifying goal or manifesto. While there were examples of powerful women in Silicon Valley, such as Ruth Porat and Dina Powell McCormick, many were unaware of their existence.

The question of who the most powerful woman in tech is proved difficult to answer, as the true power in Silicon Valley seems to be a combination of financial, intellectual, political, and social or cultural capital.