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CORRECTION: Eclipse Layer-2 Founder Neel Somani Transitions From Chairman to Machine Learning Research

News Provided by ACCESS Newswire2026-01-28

This release updates the release that posted earlier on 1/27/26 to clarify the SOURCE of the release.

SAN RAMON, CA / ACCESS Newswire / January 27, 2026 /Last month, Eclipse Labs announced alongside its founder, Neel Somani, that Somani has stepped down from his role as Executive Chairman. The move completes his planned exit from company governance and marks a full transition toward machine learning research and philanthropy. This article provides additional context on that decision and the path leading up to it.

Founder Background

Somani began his career at University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with a triple major in mathematics, computer science, and business administration. During his time at Berkeley, he gravitated toward formal verification and computer security, working with Professor Dawn Song, founder of Oasis Labs.

After graduating, Neel Somani joined Citadel as a quantitative researcher, applying optimization and formal methods to problems in the electricity markets. In 2022, he left Citadel to pursue entrepreneurship full-time, founding what would later become Eclipse Labs.

Company History

In mid-2022, Somani raised pre-seed and seed financing totaling $15 million to build a rollup framework based on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). The initial vision positioned Eclipse as a rollup-as-a-service platform.

By late 2023, Eclipse shifted away from a generalized rollup framework toward a single, high-performance Ethereum layer-2 network, later branded as Eclipse Mainnet. Around this time, Somani aligned with investors and senior leadership on a longer-term plan to step back from day-to-day operations once the network reached stability.

In early 2024, Eclipse raised a $50 million Series A round to fund the development and launch of Eclipse Mainnet. Following the raise, Somani transitioned into the role of Executive Chairman and appointed Vijay Chetty as Chief Executive Officer. While Somani continued to oversee strategy and governance, operational leadership moved to the executive team. Eclipse confirms that the transition was founder-initiated and planned prior to the Series A, and that Somani retained ownership and board authority of the company.

By mid-2025, Eclipse Labs had successfully shipped Eclipse Mainnet. Following its launch, Somani reassessed the company 's long-term direction and supported a strategic shift away from infrastructure development and toward application-level products. As part of this transition, Sydney Huang replaced Vijay Chetty as CEO to lead the company 's next phase.

In October 2025, Somani formally stepped down from his remaining director role, completing his planned exit from Eclipse Labs governance.

Neel Somani 's Machine Learning Research Focus

Following his departure from Eclipse Labs, Somani has refocused on machine learning research, particularly the application of formal methods to modern neural systems. His work spans areas such as mechanistic interpretability, which aims to understand and explain the internal representations and algorithms learned by large language models such as ChatGPT.

According to Somani, several of these projects are being transitioned to independent research groups for continued development. He continues to publish technical essays and research notes on his personal blog, which previously covered blockchain-related topics and now focuses primarily on machine learning and formal reasoning.

Future of Eclipse Labs

In December, CEO Sydney Huang published an essay on X titled "Three Years Around the Sun with Eclipse ", outlining the company 's next chapter. The post signals a move away from continued layer-2 infrastructure development and toward building a single, focused application, consistent with prior company announcements.

The essay was well received within the Eclipse community. Details about the forthcoming application have not yet been publicly disclosed.