Maithra Raghu is one of the standout leaders in artificial intelligence named among TIME’s 2025 TIME100 AI honorees. She is co-founder and CEO of Samaya AI, a startup that builds AI tools specifically tailored for the finance sector. The company helps analysts at major Wall Street firms by automating research reports, summarizing pitch decks, and modeling the economic effects of policies such as tariffs.
Before founding Samaya in 2022, Raghu built her technical expertise as a researcher at Google Brain, where she also did healthcare-focused work. Mentored by pioneers in the field, she carries forward a vision of AI powered by specialization — systems built for expert domains rather than general-purpose use.
Samaya AI recently raised $43.5 million in funding from prominent figures in the tech world. The company is also pushing forward “Causal World Models,” its next-generation AI modules designed to analyze qualitative and quantitative scenarios in macroeconomics, finance, and policy. Raghu and her cofounder believe that creating domain-specific AI minimizes errors like hallucinations and makes results more actionable for high-stakes decision makers.
Her selection in the TIME100 AI list underscores the growing influence of specialized AI leadership, especially in domains where precision, domain knowledge, and regulatory clarity matter.
