In recent weeks, X CEO Linda Yaccarino and xAI’s legal chief, Robert Keele, have jumped ship.
Igor Babuschkin, the co-founder of Elon Musk’s AI and digital company, xAI, is leaving to start a venture capital firm, he announced in an X post on Wednesday.
Babuschkin and Musk founded xAI in 2023 to develop AI applications, launching Grok later that year. The company also absorbed X, formerly Twitter, which Musk acquired in 2022, and built a supercomputer in record time.
Babuschkin’s departure comes at a tumultuous time for xAI, which has experienced some setbacks with Grok and top executive exits, even as AI rivals like Google and OpenAI have accelerated their new rollouts.
Grok was recently called out for making antisemitic remarks and citing Musk’s personal opinions in response to controversial questions. More recently, the AI bot allowed users to create videos resembling nude public figures.
Meanwhile, xAI’s legal chief, Robert Keele, left this month, following X CEO Linda Yaccarino’s departure in July.
In an unrelated X post, Musk said that all major AI companies, including xAI, will continue to grow; however, Google has a better chance of leading the race given its vast computational and data advantages.
Babuschkin said he will launch Babuschkin Ventures, which he says will support AI safety research and back startups that “advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe.”
Musk acknowledged Babuschkin’s contributions, saying: “Thanks for helping build @xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.”
Before co-founding xAI, Babuschkin was on the Google DeepMind research team that developed AlphaStar, an AI system capable of beating top-ranked StarCraft players. Before that, he was a researcher at OpenAI in the years leading up to the release of ChatGPT.
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