Stanford freshmen courted by Silicon Valley VCs with pre-idea funding, yacht parties, and millions before having actual companies; AI boom transforms university into incubator where investors mine young talent for next billion-dollar startups.

The Stanford Freshmen Who Think They Rule the World

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. Updated at 8:22 a.m. ET on April 25, 2026.When I was a freshman at Stanford University, I learned to shotgun a beer from a guy in a frat. Soon after, he dropped out and started an AI company. Six months later, it was valued at more than $1 billion.For most students, Stanford is a normal competitive school, where people go to class and coffee shops and fall in love and freak out over finals. But a select few...