Eclipse founder Neel Somani resigns as executive chairman to focus on machine learning research

According to The Block, Neel Somani, the founder of the Ethereum L2 protocol Eclipse, has stepped down as Executive Chairman as of October 2025. Somani stated that this move is to fully dedicate himself to machine learning and other intellectual research directions.

Somani founded the company in 2022, raising $15 million in seed funding, aiming to build scaling solutions using the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). He later shifted focus to building a high-performance Ethereum L2 in 2023 and transitioned from CEO to Executive Chairman after completing a $50 million Series A funding round in 2024. The related adjustments were founder-led and pre-planned, with no changes to his equity or board power.