Elon Musk’s xAI loses co-founder Igor Babuschkin

Igor Babuschkin, who founded social media artificial intelligence technology, xAI, with co-founder Elon Musk in March 2023, has announced to say goodbye to the tech venture.

Babuschkin declared this in a departure post on X (formerly Twitter) on August 13, 2025: “Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023."

AI expert added: "I still remember the day I first met Elon. We both felt that a new tech company with a different kind of mission was needed.”

“I have enormous love for the whole family at xAI. Our team is truly special - you’re the most dedicated people I’ve ever worked with.” the machine learning guru concluded.

The former tech giant founding member revealed he learned two main points from startup partner Musk, one is being fearless and second is one must have a sense of urgency.

Babuschkin will be working on his new startup, Babuschkin Ventures, with a focus on AI safety research and startups to access new routes of advancing humanity.

The tech entrepreneur has worked in CERN, OpenAI and Google DeepMind before shifting personal interests to the AI market and serving a $100 million annualized company by 2024 for 2 years and 3 months as a co-founder.