Insider Brief
- Berkeley SkyDeck and UC Berkeley’s College of Computing, Data Science, and Society have launched the second year of the Mayfield AI Garage with Mayfield, expanding eligibility to recent alumni and idea-stage founders to support AI startups.
- The program offers non-dilutive stipends of $25,000 per founder, up to $50,000 per team, allowing participants to pursue entrepreneurship without giving up equity or delaying their education.
- Four teams in the 2026 cohort will receive incubator access, major cloud compute credits, legal support, and mentorship, with applications open now and the program running from May through November 2026.
PRESS RELEASE — Berkeley SkyDeck, the global hub for entrepreneurship and leading accelerator, along with UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS), today announced the second year of its partnership with Mayfield to support AI-focused student and alumni entrepreneurs. Building on the success of its inaugural year, the Mayfield AI Garage now expands eligibility to include Berkeley alumni who graduated after 2022 and welcomes founders at the idea stage, making it easier than ever for aspiring entrepreneurs to transform their AI concepts into companies. Applications open today and can be found at: mayfield.ai/berkeley.
The program offers a distinctive approach to early-stage support, providing non-dilutive funding through stipends of $25,000 per founding team member (up to $50,000 per team) without taking equity or a position on the cap table. This structure enables participants to pursue entrepreneurship while maintaining full ownership of their ventures. The initiative also enables students to explore entrepreneurship without having to choose between completing their degree and building what’s next in AI.
“Mayfield has a proven track record of helping transform breakthrough ideas into iconic companies by investing in people first and meeting founders at the inception stage,” said Navin Chaddha, managing partner at Mayfield. “We’re excited to build on the Mayfield AI Garage’s successful first year with students, and expand to Berkeley alumni who are building the future of AI.”
The program reflects a distinctive partnership model between venture capital and a public research university, one that prioritizes student access, non-dilutive support, and long-term founder development over traditional early-stage investment structures.
“We’re seeing incredible AI innovation from our Berkeley community, and the Mayfield AI Garage gives students and young alumni the runway to develop their ideas without the pressure to compromise their education or give up ownership of their vision,” said Caroline Winnett, Executive Director of Berkeley SkyDeck. “We’re excited to provide students and recent alumni a serious pathway to pursue entrepreneurship in a way that works for them.”
The 2026 cohort will provide four winning teams – two undergraduate teams and two teams from Berkeley’s AI research labs – with comprehensive support including admittance to Berkeley SkyDeck’s highly competitive Pad-13 incubator program, acceptance into NVIDIA’s Inception program for startups, up to $350,000 in compute credits from Microsoft Azure, legal support from Orrick up to $25,000, and direct mentorship from Mayfield’s team.
“The inaugural year of this partnership proved remarkably successful and provided our students with access to critical elements of entrepreneurship, including access to mentorship, compute, capital, and – most importantly – to belief,” said Jennifer Chayes, dean of the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society. “By lowering the barriers to entry, we’re empowering more students to test ideas, form teams, and build responsibly at the intersection of AI, science, and society.”
The 2026 program is open to current UC Berkeley students and alumni who graduated within the past three years. Applications opened today and selected teams will be announced in April. The program will run from May through November 2026. Additional details about the program, eligibility, and application timelines are available at mayfield.ai/berkeley.
