David Holz

David Holz is an American entrepreneur whose work has focused on new ways for people to interact with computers. Before founding Midjourney, he co-founded Leap Motion with Michael Buckwald. That company developed hand-tracking technology intended to let people control digital systems through physical gestures rather than relying entirely on conventional input devices.

Holz founded Midjourney in 2021 as an independent research laboratory. Its image-generation service became publicly available in 2022 and attracted artists, designers, and other users interested in creating visual material from text descriptions. The service developed a distinctive place in the growing ecosystem of generative AI tools.

Midjourney's development brought together model research, interface design, and an online community that shared prompts and images. Holz has discussed the technology as a way to expand imagination and creative exploration. Its adoption also raised questions about training data, artistic labor, ownership, and the consequences of making synthetic images easy to produce.

His AI contribution lies primarily in company building and the delivery of a creative product, rather than a claim to a single foundational research paper. Midjourney shows how the experience around a model can shape its use: iteration, community feedback, and accessible workflows all affect what people can make. Holz continues to lead the company as its founder and chief executive.