xAI's Co-Founder Quits & Anthropic Absorbs Humanloop Team As AI Disrupts Jobs

The unprecedented and amazing growth of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has not only revolutionized industries but also restructured their workforce requirements.

This means that most companies are engaging in large-scale employment shifts that span the mass layoffs of workers, as well as the onboarding of skilled candidates for diverse roles. Yet, experts say that 2025 is set to witness a steady hold of global hiring.

On the other hand, businesses that are looking to lead the AI race are also scrambling to acquire capable employees and leaders alike.

In the latest developments in this area, AI company xAI—which is helmed by tech mogul Elon Musk—just saw one of its key people leave the organisation.

Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of xAI, announced through a post on Elon Musk’s social media platform X that he’s set to leave the organization.

“Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,” said Babuschkin’s post dated August 14, 2025. “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.”

Through a long-text post, Babuschkin conveyed that building AI that advances humanity has been his lifelong dream, and even spoke about his journey from early days to the co-founding of xAI and his decision to call it quits. He recalled the trials and tribulations xAI has undergone to reach the position it’s at now.

“As I drive away today, I feel like a proud parent, driving away after sending their kid away to college. My heart is brimming with tears of joy, rooting for the company as it grows and matures,” said Babuschkin.

Babuschkin also spoke about his next move, which includes launching his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures. This new company, which “supports AI safety research and backs startups in AI and agentic systems that advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe.”

Replying to Babuschkin’s post, Elon Musk said, “Thanks for helping build @xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.”


Anthropic, a rival of xAI, also strengthened its workforce by onboarding the co-founders and a large part of the team of Humanloop, which is an LLM evaluation platform designed especially for enterprises.

A quick visit to Hyperloop’s website confirms that move, as the home page blares a message from the co-founders.

“We are thrilled to announce that the Humanloop team is joining Anthropic!” reads an excerpt from the announcement. “Reflecting on our journey, we're immensely proud of what we built. We were the first development platform for LLM applications and we shaped industry standards for how to manage and evaluate AI. We're excited about this next chapter, joining Anthropic to help build an AI future that benefits everyone.”

The move is expected to help Anthropic boost its enterprise strategy and deliver more powerful and capable services to enterprise customers.

Anthropic also managed to bypass lengthy acquisition investigations and associated regulatory scrutiny by employing a tactic known as Acquihire Deals, which includes simply onboarding another company’s top talent and leadership instead of actually purchasing the company.

It also comes days after the company offered Claude for Enterprise and Claude for Government to the U.S. government for $1—a move OpenAI made first.


These moves come as major tech conglomerates lay off thousands of workers, which has left computer science graduates struggling to find jobs in the tech industry.

“The rhetoric was, if you just learned to code, work hard and get a computer science degree, you can get six figures for your starting salary,” said 21-year-old Ms. Mishra. However, for her, landing a job in the technology sector has proven to be a tough task.

“I just graduated with a computer science degree, and the only company that has called me for an interview is Chipotle,” said Mishra, who spent a year hunting for tech jobs and internships before graduating from Purdue University without an offer.

Since the 2010s, numerous billionaires, technology bigwigs, and even United States presidents have advocated the importance of learning to code, even saying that possessing such tech skills could bring them high salary packages, various incentives, and more.

“Typically their starting salary is more than $100,000,” plus $15,000 hiring bonuses and stock grants worth $50,000,” said Brad Smith—who is currently Microsoft's vice chair and president—in 2012.

However, the current reality is that AI-powered coding platforms and tools have rendered coders and other technical professionals obsolete, sparking giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and others to lay off workers.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump, in a bid to strengthen the country’s AI prowess, has advised American companies—including Google, Microsoft, and Apple—to stop hiring foreign workers.

He believes these companies should prioritize national interests and instead offer jobs to U.S. nationals.

However, there has been no official policy introduced banning the hiring of foreign workers, and reports note that Big Tech is against such moves. Until there is more clarity on this idea, there will remain uncertainty about what it spells for the global hiring industry—and could even affect hiring plans for now.

Do you think AI will continue to disrupt jobs as it has been doing? Do you think it will affect sectors it hasn’t hit yet?

Let us know in the comments below!