Alex Blania

Born circa 1994, Alex Blania grew up outside Nuremberg. He went to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg for a master's degree in physics. Researching to become a theoretical physicist, he then studied for a master's at Caltech.^[1] 

While Blania was at Caltech, in 2019, entrepreneurs Sam Altman and Max Novendstern emailed him with an offer to work with them on a new project incorporating universal basic income. Blania was interested enough to leave Caltech^[1] and co-found both World^[6] and Tools for Humanity, World's parent company.^[2] He became Worldcoin's CEO as well.^[4]

World had been developing a humanity verification system,^[6] and Blania began designing the hardware. The product, named the Orb, uses iris biometrics to confirm a user is human.^[2] In 2020, Blania hired a team to assemble the Orb in a new facility in Erlangen, and by the summer of 2021, they were field testing a prototype.^[1] During a beta-testing period, World used the Orb device to register users in multiple countries, and World launched publicly in 2023.^[6] 

After the Kenyan government raised security concerns,^[7] in Sep. of 2023, Blania appeared in person before the National Assembly to defend the product’s safety.^[8] On Sep. 18, Kenya's Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki stated Kenyan authorities had attempted to detain Blania but had been blocked by US authorities.^[9] World responded that neither Blania or any of its employees had been detained.^[4] 

In Jan. of 2024, Blania announced an update to the Orb device, at which point Tools for Humanity had raised around $250 million.^[6]

In Aug. of 2025, he was named to the TIME list of the most 100 influential people in AI.^[10]

In Aug. of 2025, it was reported that Blania and Altman were co-founding Merge Labs,^[5] an AI company aiming to compete with Neuralink.^[11]