Indian AI researcher Devendra Singh Chaplot has joined Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI – now merged with SpaceX. Chaplot announced his decision to join xAI on X, with Musk promptly replying to his post. He will be reporting directly to the tech billionaire as part of his new role.
On X, Devendra shared an image where he stands alongside Elon Musk. He wrote that he is joining Musk’s team to build “super intelligence” – a state where AI can start thinking beyond human capabilities.
Elon Musk quoted Chaplot’s post on X and replied, “Welcome to @xAI!”
Devendra added that he hoped to capitalise on the combined capabilities of SpaceX and xAI. He explained, “Together SpaceX and xAI combine physical and digital intelligence under a leader who understands hardware at the deepest level.”
Chaplot joins xAI at a time when Elon Musk has vowed to rebuild the AI startup. Over the past year, xAI has lost several of its founding members. And now, Musk has insisted that he will be interviewing promising candidates who were previously “declined” an offer or interview.
Musk recently announced Macrohard, a project that aims to build a digital version of Tesla’s Optimus by leveraging the capabilities of Tesla and xAI.
Who is Devendra Singh Chaplot?
Chaplot is a veteran in the field of AI. He was previously at Thinking Machine Labs as a founding member. Thinking Machine Labs is an AI startup by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. Previously, he was part of the founding team of Mistral AI, another AI startup, backed by Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML.
Devendra was part of Facebook’s AI research team as early as 2018. Before his stint in the AI industry, he worked as a research associate at Samsung.
In his post, Chaplot reflected on his career, saying, “I’ve obsessed over for years, from robotics research to building AI models on the founding teams of Mistral and TML.”
Devendra Singh Chaplot is a Computer Science graduate from IIT Bombay. He holds a PhD in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University, where he also completed his Master’s in Language Technology.
