IIT Bombay Alumnus Devendra Singh Chaplot Joins Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI To Build Superintelligence

Indian artificial intelligence researcher Devendra Singh Chaplot has made headlines by announcing his new role at SpaceX and xAI, both companies led by the renowned entrepreneur Elon Musk. Chaplot’s involvement is set to focus on advanced artificial intelligence and the development of superintelligence, a concept that has gained traction in recent years as AI technology continues to evolve.

Announcement of New Role

On March 14, 2026, Chaplot took to his X handle to share the exciting news, posting a photograph of himself alongside Elon Musk. In his announcement, he expressed his ambition to contribute to the creation of “superintelligence,” a term that refers to AI systems that surpass human intelligence in virtually every field.

Collaboration Between SpaceX and xAI

At SpaceX and xAI, Chaplot is expected to leverage SpaceX’s expertise in rocketry and robotics, combining it with xAI’s large-scale AI models. This collaboration aims to develop what has been described as unified physical-digital intelligence, a groundbreaking approach that could revolutionize multiple industries.

Academic Background

Devendra Singh Chaplot is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, where he graduated in 2014 with a first-class degree in Computer Science and Engineering. He achieved an impressive core GPA of 9.51 out of 10. Following his undergraduate studies, Chaplot pursued further education at Carnegie Mellon University, where he completed a Master’s in Language Technology and later earned a PhD in Machine Learning in 2020.

Early Career

Before joining Musk’s ventures, Chaplot worked as a research scientist at Mistral AI in Paris. He was part of the founding team and played a significant role in training flagship models, including Mistral 7B, Mixtral 8x7B, and Mistral Large. Additionally, he led the multimodal research team responsible for Pixtral 12B and Pixtral Large.

Prior to his time at Mistral, Chaplot spent two years at Facebook AI Research (FAIR), where he focused on the intersection of machine learning, computer vision, and robotics. His early career also included research roles at major tech companies like Apple and Samsung Electronics.

Award-Winning Research

Chaplot’s contributions to the AI research community have not gone unnoticed. He has received numerous accolades for his work, including:

• Winner of the NeurIPS 2022 Habitat Rearrangement Challenge
• Winner of the CVPR 2020 ObjectNav Challenge
• Facebook Graduate Fellowship recipient
• Best Paper Award at the CVPR 2018 Deep Learning for Visual SLAM Workshop
• Winner of the CVPR 2019 AI-Habitat Navigation Challenge

Chaplot’s academic excellence is also evident from his performance in competitive examinations. He ranked 25th across India in the IIT-JEE 2010 entrance examination, competing against approximately 500,000 candidates.

List of Awards and Achievements

Here is a comprehensive list of Chaplot’s awards and achievements:

• Winner of NeurIPS 2022 Habitat Rearrangement Challenge
• Winner of CVPR 2020 ObjectNav Challenge
• Facebook Graduate Fellowship 2020
• Nvidia Graduate Fellowship 2020 (declined)
• Facebook Research Award on PyRobot: Democratizing Robotics (2020)
• Winner of CVPR 2019 AI-Habitat Navigation Challenge in both RGB and RGB-D tracks
• Best Paper Award at CVPR 2018 Deep Learning for Visual SLAM Workshop
• Best Demo Award at AAAI 2017 Visual Doom AI Competition
• Research Fellowship with full tuition waiver and stipend for Master’s in LTI at CMU (2015-2017)
• All India Rank 25 in IIT-JEE 2010 (amongst 0.5 million students)
• All India Rank 96 in AIEEE 2010 (amongst 1.1 million students)
• CBSE Merit Scholar (2010-2014): Awarded to 300 students amongst 1.1 million candidates
• NTSE Scholar (2008-2014): Awarded to 775 students amongst 0.3 million candidates
• International Rank 5 in 3rd International Mathematics Olympiad

Future Prospects

As Chaplot embarks on this new chapter at SpaceX and xAI, the AI community and tech enthusiasts alike are eager to see the innovations that will emerge from this collaboration. The integration of advanced AI with space exploration and robotics could lead to significant advancements in both fields and potentially transform our understanding of intelligence itself.

Conclusion

Devendra Singh Chaplot’s journey from IIT Bombay to joining forces with Elon Musk at SpaceX and xAI is a testament to his dedication and expertise in the field of artificial intelligence. His work is poised to contribute significantly to the future of technology and intelligence, making him a prominent figure to watch in the coming years.

Note: This article is based on information available as of March 2026 and may be subject to updates as developments occur.