For much of his life, Zain Javaid, 19, wanted to be a quant who uses math and data to guide his investment decisions. And for a while, he was one. Then, in 2022, ChatGPT was released, and “I felt fundamentally excited in a way that I never had been before,” he told TechCrunch.
He became interested in personal AI, and that interest led him to start Ghost, which announced Monday that it has emerged from stealth after a year of building, along with an $11 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors in the round include Abstract, Audacious Ventures, SV Angel, and Nova. His founding team includes Nicholas Chua, 19, Yifei Chen, 24, and Guatam Sharda, 23.
Ghost’s first product is Core, a personal computer designed specifically for AI agents that can take actions on a person’s behalf. According to Javaid, the idea is to centralize a person’s data, from what’s on their desktop to apps to smart home devices, into one piece of hardware designed to continuously run AI agents that can act as an assistant, perform tasks, and understand a person’s life. Core includes an Nvidia RTX Pro 4000 SFF Blackwell GPU (a type of chip commonly used to run AI models), said Javaid, adding that the GPU is bundled into the device’s price, so customers don’t need to buy one separately.
He said it also has its own software layer, browser, and filing system, and can continuously process information and tasks without constant prompting. Pre-orders for the first batch open Monday, and shipping is scheduled for the last week of October. Javaid described Core as a “brain box” without a screen, which users access through a phone or app.
Voice mode is also available, but users must speak into the Core app rather than the box itself. Core comes with three models preinstalled: Qwen-3.8-Next, Qwen-3.8-27B, and Gemma-4-31B. Javaid said users can also install other models from Hugging Face, where developers share AI models, or load their own trained models.
Asked how Core differs from a Mac Mini, Apple’s small desktop computer that some people set up to run AI tools, Javaid said Core’s hardware and software were built specifically for running AI agents, with models already installed, while the Mac Mini is a general-purpose computer that can be configured for AI. Javaid said the goal is to sell a fully functioning computer that doesn’t require complex setup or configuration. He said the models and personal memory run locally, and that all personal information is encrypted so that no cloud provider or third party, including Ghost, can meaningfully access it.
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