Elon Musk’s xAI just lost one of its co-founders. Igor Babuschkin, a founding member of Musk’s xAI, said Wednesday that he’s leaving the artificial intelligence (AI) startup to launch his own venture firm.
“Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,” Babuschkin wrote on X, which is owned by xAI. “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. Building AI that advances humanity has been my lifelong dream.”
Musk wrote in response, “Thanks for helping build @xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.”
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Founded by Musk, xAI aims to develop safe, powerful artificial intelligence systems designed to deepen our understanding of the universe and benefit humanity. Unlike some AI projects that prioritize narrow applications, xAI aims to develop more general, versatile AI models. The company emphasizes transparency, safety, and collaboration to ensure AI benefits everyone while minimizing risks. By combining cutting-edge research and engineering, xAI seeks to push the boundaries of what AI can achieve, potentially transforming industries, scientific discovery, and everyday life.
Babuschkin said he’s starting Babuschkin Ventures to support AI safety research and invest in startups in “AI and agentic systems that advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe.”
“Through blood sweat and tears, our team’s blistering velocity built the Memphis supercluster, and shipped frontier models faster than any company in history,” he wrote.
Babuschkin is a distinguished artificial intelligence researcher and co-founder of xAI, the AI startup established by Musk in 2023. Before his role at xAI, Babuschkin amassed extensive experience at leading AI institutions such as DeepMind and OpenAI, contributing to breakthrough projects that have pushed the boundaries of machine learning and reinforcement learning. At DeepMind, he was part of the team that developed AlphaStar, an AI system that achieved grandmaster-level performance in the complex real-time strategy game StarCraft II.
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When xAI was founded, Babuschkin played a critical role in shaping the company’s technical foundation. He was responsible for building the infrastructure and assembling engineering teams to develop and train large-scale AI models. A key achievement under his leadership was the deployment of the Memphis supercluster, xAI’s powerful supercomputing platform that enables rapid and efficient AI research and development.
Babuschkin’s departure from xAI marks a significant transition for Musk’s ambitious AI startup. His exit to start Babuschkin Ventures, focused on AI safety and ethical development, highlights the growing importance of responsible AI innovation in the industry.