xAI Cofounder Igor Babuschkin Exits to Launch AI Safety Investment Firm

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI cofounder Igor Babuschkin announced that he has left the company and intends to start an investment firm that specializes in AI safety research.

Musk accused industry leaders of excessive censorship and inadequate safety standards when he founded xAI in 2023 to counter Big Tech's AI push.

Key Highlights

• Igor Babuschkin exits xAI to launch Babuschkin Ventures, focusing on AI safety and ethical research.
• Babuschkin played a vital role at xAI, building infrastructure like the Memphis supercluster and foundational AI tools.

"Today was my last day at xAI," Babuschkin wrote in a post on X, adding that his new company, Babuschkin Ventures, will support startups working on AI safety research.

Before taking charge of engineering for infrastructure, product, and applied AI projects, Babuschkin, who was previously employed at Google's DeepMind and OpenAI, explained xAI's early rush to develop models and infrastructure, claiming to have developed "many of the foundational tools" for starting and running training jobs.

Also Read: Elon Musk Challenges Google, OpenAI with Grok’s New Text-to-Video Tool

His departure comes amid growing competition among AI players like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, which are investing heavily in training and implementing cutting-edge systems. It also follows the departure of Robert Keele, the legal head of xAI, earlier this month.

Only a few months after the platform was merged into xAI, Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of Musk's X, also resigned last month.

Musk is battling executive departures at Tesla on his own.