Aug 13 (Reuters) - Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of Elon

Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI, said on Wednesday

that he has left the company and plans to launch an investment

firm focused on AI safety research.

Musk launched xAI in 2023 to challenge Big Tech's AI

push, accusing industry leaders of excessive censorship and lax

safety standards.

"Today was my last day at xAI," Babuschkin said in a

post on X, adding that his new venture, Babuschkin Ventures,

will back AI safety research and startups developing the

technology.

Babuschkin, who previously worked at Google's DeepMind

and OpenAI, described xAI's early scramble to build

infrastructure and models, saying he created "many of the

foundational tools" for launching and managing training jobs

before later overseeing engineering across infrastructure,

product and applied AI projects.

His departure follows that of xAI's legal head, Robert

Keele, earlier this month, and comes amid intensifying

competition among AI players such as OpenAI, Google and

Anthropic, which are pouring resources into training and

deploying advanced systems.

Last month, Musk-owned X's CEO Linda Yaccarino also

resigned, just months after the platform was folded into xAI.

Musk is separately contending with executive departures at

Tesla.