Reid Hoffman and Marc Pincus launch Prentis, a new AI lab chasing $100M to automate everyday computer work

What happened

A new AI lab called Prentis has emerged, co-founded by Reid Hoffman—co-founder of LinkedIn and a longtime AI investor—and Marc Pincus, the founder of Zynga. According to TechCrunch, Prentis is currently in talks to raise approximately $100 million.

The lab's central thesis is notable: rather than focusing on AI coding tools—the category that has dominated recent venture investment—Prentis is betting that automating routine computer tasks will soon outpace coding as AI's biggest use case. That framing positions Prentis in the emerging "computer use" or "agentic task automation" space, where AI systems are designed to perform multi-step actions across desktop applications, browsers, and workflows rather than simply generating code snippets.

Details about Prentis's specific product, technical approach, founding team beyond its two co-founders, or target customer segments have not yet been disclosed publicly. The funding round is described as being "in talks," meaning it has not closed and the final amount, lead investors, and valuation remain unconfirmed.

Why it matters

The launch signals where seasoned consumer-internet operators see AI heading next. Hoffman and Pincus both built companies that scaled by reaching hundreds of millions of ordinary users—not developers. Their bet on task automation over coding suggests a conviction that AI's largest market will be everyday knowledge workers and consumers who want computers to handle repetitive chores, not just engineers writing software.

This aligns with a broader industry shift. While coding assistants like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Anthropic's Claude have absorbed significant attention and capital, a growing contingent of labs and startups—including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic itself—have begun exploring "computer-using" agents that can navigate interfaces, fill forms, move files, and chain together actions across applications. Prentis appears to be entering that same arena with a consumer-and-productivity lens.

The $100 million target also reflects continued investor appetite for AI infrastructure and applied-agent startups, even as questions persist about unit economics, reliability, and safety of autonomous computer-control systems.

What to watch

• Round closure details: Whether Prentis closes the $100M raise, who leads it, and at what valuation will signal how investors weigh task-automation startups against coding-focused competitors.
• Product reveal: Prentis has not yet described a concrete product. The first demo or release will clarify whether the lab is building a horizontal agent platform, a vertical workflow tool, or something else entirely.
• Competitive positioning: How Prentis differentiates from existing computer-use efforts at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and startups like MultiOn or Adept will be critical.
• Safety and reliability framing: Autonomous computer control raises clear risks around data privacy, unintended actions, and security. Watch for how Prentis addresses guardrails.