Mafia show – OpenAI founder Sam Altman, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, and biohacker Bryan Johnson are among 12 Silicon Valley “tech legends” playing Mafia in a new Founders Fund show. The first 33-minute episode launched Thursday on YouTube and X, filmed at Tosca Cafe, wi
On Thursday, a familiar Silicon Valley instinct kicked in—but this time it came with a twist: accusations flew in a murder-mystery game, and the room was full of people who don’t usually share the spotlight.
A new show from Founders Fund brought together 12 “tech legends” to play Mafia—an all-out test of deception and detection. The series launched Thursday on YouTube and X. and the premise is simple enough to fit on a card: each player gets randomly assigned a role. including one mafia. The mafia’s goal is to kill off everyone else. while the rest of the group has to identify—then eliminate—the mafia.
The first episode runs 33 minutes and was filmed at Tosca Cafe. an iconic San Francisco bar and restaurant that previously served as the location of the famous PayPal Mafia photo published in Fortune in 2007. For viewers. the draw is the contrast: high-profile founders and operators trading reputations for a game where strategy matters and certainty is the enemy.
The lineup spans a wide spectrum of the tech world. Sam Altman of OpenAI is there alongside Palmer Luckey, the founder of Anduril. Bryan Johnson—the biohacker known for his quest to conquer aging—plays too. Also in the group: biohacker Josie Zayner; Wait But Why writer Tim Urban; professional poker player Liv Boeree; AI policy expert Ryan Beiermeister; Figma founder Dylan Field; Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike; angel investor Cyan Banister; Flexport founder Ryan Petersen; and Founders Fund partner Trae Stephens.
The show’s own framing is pointed. For Mafia, the purpose is “to deceive and to detect deception,” and the series adds: “For years, everyone in Silicon Valley has played.”
Over the course of the episode, accusations were thrown left and right, but not everyone attacked with the same energy. Luckey, quick with jokes during the game, became a target for some players, who treated his humor like a clue. Stephens. the Founders Fund partner. also suggested Johnson could be harder to eliminate—saying. “Whatever Bryan says we should go with because he can’t die. ” referring to Johnson’s “Don’t Die” app.
Tension sharpened further around Ryan Beiermeister. There were accusations between Altman and Beiermeister, and those friction points weren’t happening in a vacuum: The Wall Street Journal is cited in the show coverage as saying Beiermeister was fired from OpenAI in January.
Mike Solana, the CMO of Founders Fund and host of the game, laid out what comes next on X: the next two episodes of the show will be released on Thursdays over the next couple of weeks.
The Mafia match is also part of a broader shift in Silicon Valley media. The show lands as another sign of tech’s growing appetite for new formats—just after OpenAI’s acquisition of the tech talk show TBPN.
No spoilers were provided in the coverage of the first episode. but the setup already makes one thing clear: in this version of Mafia. the “tech legends” don’t just bring their minds. They bring their history. their reputations. and the risk that the loudest strategy in the room might be the easiest to exploit.
Founders Fund Mafia game Sam Altman Palmer Luckey Bryan Johnson OpenAI Anduril biohacker Silicon Valley Tosca Cafe Trae Stephens Mike Solana