Zain Javaid, 19, said the release of ChatGPT in 2022 rekindled his excitement about artificial intelligence and pushed him toward building personal AI. On Monday, his startup Ghost announced it had exited stealth after a year of development and closed an $11 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors in the round include Abstract, Audacious Ventures, SV Angel, and Nova.
The team
Ghost’s founding team consists of Zain Javaid (19), Nicholas Chua (19), Yifei Chen (24) and Gautam Sharda (23). Javaid is the company’s CEO and described the core idea as creating a device that continuously runs AI agents which can act on behalf of a person.
What is Core?
Core is a screenless personal computer built specifically to host and run AI agents. Users access it via a phone or an app; a voice mode exists but audio input must go through the Core app rather than the box itself. The device includes an Nvidia RTX Pro 4000 SFF Blackwell GPU, which is bundled into the device price so customers do not need to buy a separate GPU. Core is priced at $3,499; preorders for the first batch open on Monday and shipping is scheduled for the last week of October.
The device ships with its own software layer, browser and file system and is designed to continuously process information and tasks without requiring constant prompts from users.
Models and extensibility
Core comes with three preinstalled models: Qwen-3.8-Next, Qwen-3.8-27B and Gemma-4-31B. Users can install additional models from Hugging Face or load their own trained models.
Local processing, encryption and autonomy
Javaid emphasized that models and personal memory run locally on the device and that all personal information is encrypted so that cloud providers or other third parties, including Ghost, cannot meaningfully access it. According to the company, all source code, logic and model weights live on the device rather than on external services.
Users can control how much autonomy they grant their Core agents, and the device is programmed to keep operating even if Ghost were to shut down. The team is also building a firewall that monitors every outgoing network request: if it detects an agent performing an unsanctioned action or exfiltrating data, the firewall rejects the request and flags it for user review.
Updates and competition
Core supports over-the-air updates so the company can push new models or improvements remotely. When a new generation of models is available, Ghost asks users whether they want to switch; users may also enable auto-updates to always run the latest generation of a model.
Javaid acknowledged that large incumbents have resources and hardware strengths but argued that much of what Core aims to solve is software-focused — how a model reasons about someone’s life, how it remembers, when and how it takes actions.
Manufacturing and product focus
The team currently assembles units at its San Francisco facility. Javaid said the company’s primary objective is to sell a fully functioning computer that requires minimal setup. He reiterated that ownership rests with the user: once the hardware is purchased, everything is stored, run and processed on the device.
As an example of Core’s intended behavior, Javaid described the device proactively notifying a user they might be getting sick if it detects an elevated resting heart rate, sees from computer history that the person was up late working, and has seasonal context such as flu activity in San Francisco.
Summary
Ghost’s Core is positioned as a local-first, privacy-minded personal AI computer with built-in GPU and three preinstalled models, priced at $3,499. The company raised an $11 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and aims to deliver units starting in the last week of October while emphasizing local processing, encryption and user control over agent autonomy.
The image accompanying the announcement shows Core’s founding team (left to right): Gautam Sharda (23), Yifei Chen (24), Zain Javaid (19) and Nicholas Chua (19).
