Dawn Song
About Dawn Song
Dawn Song is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley and co-director of Berkeley RDI, the Berkeley Center on Responsible Decentralized Intelligence. Her research covers AI, AI security, deep learning, and computer security and privacy. Her awards include a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and named an AI2050 Senior Fellow by Schmidt Sciences, both in 2025.
She founded Oasis Labs in 2018 and is its CEO. Oasis builds privacy-focused blockchain and decentralized cloud infrastructure. Crunchbase lists her as VP of AI Research at Meta from June 2026, and her own X post gives the title as VP of AI Research, Meta Superintelligence Labs. She holds an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.
Crunchbase, CB Insights and NFX Signal each list three personal investments: Eclipse (pre-seed, September 2022), Together AI (seed, May 2023) and alphaXiv (seed, November 2025). All three are early-stage rounds in which she took part as an individual. NFX Signal classes her as an angel and ranks her in seed and pre-seed for security, Web3 and AI.
Together AI raised a $20M seed in May 2023, and alphaXiv raised a $7M seed in November 2025. In April 2026, NeoCognition announced a $40M seed round. Press coverage lists her among the angel investors and advisors, alongside Lip-Bu Tan, Ion Stoica, Ruslan Salakhutdinov and Luke Zettlemoyer. The round was co-led by Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures. NeoCognition was founded by Yu Su, Xiang Deng and Yu Gu and builds AI agents that learn on the job. She has not published a statement on how she picks investments.
Her recorded investments are pre-seed and seed. The sectors are AI, AI infrastructure and research tooling, security, and blockchain. Tracxn lists the portfolio companies as US-based. NFX Signal shows an investment range of $5K to $50K with a $25K sweet spot. That figure comes from a third-party profile, not from her. Founders with work on agents, AI safety or security, or decentralized infrastructure are closest to what she has backed and what she researches.
- NeoCognition: AI agent lab building agents that learn domain expertise on the job. Announced a $40M seed in April 2026, with her named as an angel.
- alphaXiv: research tooling for AI papers. $7M seed in November 2025, with co-investors including Eric Schmidt and Menlo Ventures.
- Together AI: AI cloud and infrastructure company. $20M seed in May 2023.
- Eclipse: blockchain infrastructure company. $6M pre-seed in September 2022.
- signal.nfx.com/investors/dawn-song
- crunchbase.com/person/dawn-song
- cbinsights.com/investor/dawn-song
- tracxn.com/d/people/dawn-song/__y4YMo9cfX6H5dvTYl4VEmyDPDylObG5PCSWm35
- thenextweb.com/news/neocognition-40m-seed-self-learning-ai-agents
- finsmes.com/2026/04/neocognition-raises-40m-in-seed-funding.html
- dawnsong.io
- x.com/dawnsongtweets
Investing activity
Dawn Song appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $40M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $40M. The most recent is NeoCognition (Seed, $40M, Apr 2026).
Dawn Song most often invests alongside Walden Catalyst Ventures, Cambium Capital Partners, Cambium Capital and Ion Stoica, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Dawn Song
Does Dawn Song invest in AI startups?
Yes. She is listed as an angel in Together AI (2023), alphaXiv (2025) and NeoCognition (2026), all early-stage AI companies.
What check size does Dawn Song write?
She has not stated one publicly. NFX Signal lists a $5K to $50K range with a $25K sweet spot, which is a third-party estimate.
What stage does Dawn Song invest in?
Pre-seed and seed. Her recorded deals are Eclipse (pre-seed), Together AI (seed), alphaXiv (seed) and NeoCognition (seed).
What is Dawn Song's background?
She is a UC Berkeley computer science professor, co-director of Berkeley RDI and founder of Oasis Labs. She is also listed as VP of AI Research at Meta.
Which sectors does Dawn Song back?
AI, security and blockchain, according to NFX Signal's sector rankings and her portfolio. Her research focuses on AI safety and security, agentic AI and decentralization.
How can founders reach Dawn Song?
Her public channels are her X account @dawnsongtweets, her LinkedIn profile and her personal site. No pitch process is published.
Is Dawn Song an angel investor?
Yes. Dawn Song invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Dawn Song invested in?
Dawn Song's AI investments include NeoCognition. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Dawn Song invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Dawn Song has invested at Seed, with a median round of $40M.
Who does Dawn Song co-invest with?
Dawn Song's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Walden Catalyst Ventures (1 deal), Cambium Capital Partners (1 deal), Cambium Capital (1 deal), Ion Stoica (1 deal) and Lip-Bu Tan (1 deal).