Steven Hao

Steven Hao is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Cognition AI, the applied AI lab behind Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer. He studied at MIT and was an early software engineer at Scale AI (Jan 2018 - May 2022), working on products including sensor fusion for autonomous vehicles and machine learning. Before Scale AI he held stints at Jane Street, D. E. Shaw, and Quora. A competitive-programming champion, he won a silver (2013) and gold (2014) medal for the USA at the International Olympiad in Informatics, and as of September 2026 is the youngest member of the Forbes 400 with an estimated net worth of $5.8B.

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• Quant employment verification: CONFIRMED. Steven Hao worked at Jane Street and D. E. Shaw, two quantitative-trading employers, before Scale AI - per Scale CEO Alexandr Wang's primary company blog (June 9, 2018): 'Steven graduated from MIT and previously had stints at Jane Street, DE Shaw, and Quora ... He received a gold medal at IOI.' Employer classification: Jane Street is a quantitative proprietary trading firm/market maker; D. E. Shaw is a quantitative hedge fund - both operate in quantitative finance by name and function, not merely by company name. Identity: the same post simultaneously identifies the IOI gold medalist, MIT graduate, and Scale engineer who is the Cognition CTO, so the subject identity is supported. Qualification: the roles are described as 'stints' (actual short roles/internships during/around undergrad), not student insight days, camps, or scholarship programs. The separate 'Quantbot Technologies LP - Quantitative Researcher' LinkedIn lead under 'stevenhao2020' is a different person (Georgia Tech CS student) and is NOT evidence for this subject.Jun 9, 2018
• Co-founded Cognition (makers of the Devin AI software engineer) in November 2023 with Scott Wu (CEO) and Walden Yan (CPO); Hao serves as Chief Technology Officer.Nov 2023
• Identity reconciliation: Steven Hao the Cognition co-founder/CTO (MIT, IOI 2013 silver / 2014 gold, ex-Scale AI) is a DIFFERENT person from the 'stevenhao2020' LinkedIn lead (CS student at Georgia Tech, Quantitative Researcher @ Quantbot, New York) supplied in the task. The Cognition subject went to MIT, not Georgia Tech, and was at Scale AI 2018-2022; the Quantbot/Georgia Tech profile is a namesake. All Cambridge/quant facts below concern the MIT/Cognition Steven Hao.Jun 9, 2018
• Scale AI's CEO Alexandr Wang named Steven Hao on the Scale engineering team, describing 'stints at Jane Street, DE Shaw, and Quora' and an IOI gold medal - the single densest primary-source statement tying the IOI identity to the quant-firm work.Jun 9, 2018
• Joined Scale AI as an early software engineer in January 2018, working across the product suite including sensor fusion for autonomous vehicles and machine learning, and stayed roughly four years to May 2022 before co-founding Cognition.Jan 2018
• As of Forbes' 2026-09-15 update he is the youngest member of the Forbes 400, with estimated net worth $5.8B sourced to his Cognition stake - up sharply from the ~$1.3B reported in January 2026 after Cognition's valuation rose to a reported $48B.Sep 15, 2026
• Studied at MIT (mathematics, per the speaker bio; computer science and mathematics per profile aggregators), graduating around 2018 - the year he joined Scale AI full time.2018
• IOI record: silver medal representing the USA at IOI 2013 (52nd) and gold at IOI 2014 (6th) - matches the task-supplied olympiad identity 'Steven Hao, USA, IOI 2013, 2014'.Jul 2014
• Cognition raised $2 billion from private investors at a reported $48 billion valuation in September 2026, the event that lifted Hao past the billionaire threshold.Sep 2026
• Verifiable X account @stevenkplus1 (bio: 'Building @cognition. Previously @scale_AI @MIT'; 3,648 followers) posts on Cognition product milestones - Devin model releases, Dioxus integration, and customer automations - consistent with an active CTO focused on shipping the product rather than personal branding.Sep 17, 2026
• Competitive-programming handles: Codeforces 'stevenkplus' (international grandmaster, max rating 2874) and Topcoder 'aceofdiamonds'; he also streamed algorithm speed-solving and contest walkthroughs on Twitch as stevenkplus.Apr 25, 2026
• Cognition's Devin coding agent is used by businesses including Citibank and Ramp, and the company counts roughly 200 employees as of 2026.2026