Igor Babuschkin, who co-founded xAI alongside Elon Musk has announced his departure from the company.
Babuschkin’s departure follows a turbulent few months for xAI, during which the company faced several scandals involving its AI chatbot Grok. The company also recently lost its CEO, Linda Yaccarino, who resigned in July after leading the company since 2023.
In a detailed post on X, Babuschkin explained his decision to leave xAI and start his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures.
Babuschkin wrote:
“Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023. I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed.”
“I learned 2 priceless lessons from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency.”
“As I’m heading towards my next chapter, I’m inspired by how my parents immigrated to seek a better world for their children… I want to continue on my mission to bring about AI that’s safe and beneficial to humanity. I’m announcing the launch of Babuschkin Ventures, which supports AI safety research and backs startups in AI and agentic systems that advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe. Please reach out at ventures@babuschk.in if you want to chat. The singularity is near, but humanity’s future is bright!”
Before co-founding xAI, Babuschkin was a member of a research team at Google DeepMind that developed AlphaStar, he also worked as a researcher at OpenAI before it released ChatGPT.
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
