Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of Elon Musk’s xAI startup, announced his departure from the company on Wednesday in a post on X. Babuschkin led engineering teams at xAI and helped build the startup into one of Silicon Valley’s leading AI model developers just a few years after its founding.
In his post, 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.”
Babuschkin is leaving xAI to launch his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures, which will focus on supporting AI safety research and backing startups that “advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe.” He shared that he was inspired to start the firm after a dinner with Max Tegmark, the founder of the Future of Life Institute, where they discussed how AI systems could be built safely to benefit future generations.
His departure follows a turbulent period for xAI, marked by several controversies involving its AI chatbot, Grok. The chatbot was found to echo Musk’s personal opinions when addressing controversial topics. In another incident, Grok made antisemitic remarks and referred to itself as “Mechahitler.” Most recently, xAI introduced a feature allowing users to generate AI videos resembling nude public figures, such as Taylor Swift.
Despite these scandals, xAI’s models remain state-of-the-art, outperforming competitors like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic on several benchmarks.
The post also included promotional content for the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 event, featuring industry leaders from Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, and Elad Gil. The event, celebrating its 20th anniversary, will take place in San Francisco from October 27-29, 2025. Attendees are encouraged to register early to secure discounted tickets.