Indians in Musk’s AI orbit: Aman Gottumukkala joins xAI as Elon Musk taps more Indian-origin talent

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) venture xAI is increasingly drawing talent of Indian origin as it builds teams to work on advanced AI systems. 

The latest addition is Aman Gottumukkala, founder of the AI coding assistant Firebender, who announced that he is joining both SpaceX and xAI. His move follows that of AI researcher Devendra Chaplot, another Indian-origin technologist who recently joined the Musk-led companies to work on building what he described as “superintelligence”.

The back-to-back announcements have also triggered debate online, resurfacing discussions around immigration, hiring in Silicon Valley and Musk’s own views on talent and technology.

Aman Gottumukkala joins xAI

Gottumukkala, a software engineer known for building developer tools powered by AI, said he is joining SpaceX and xAI to work on next-generation coding systems.

In a post on X, he wrote: “I'm joining @SpaceX and @xai to build the best coding AI.”

Reflecting on his previous venture, he added: “For the last couple years, I founded the most widely used coding agent for Android, scaling it to millions in revenue with a team of 3.”

Gottumukkala founded Firebender, an AI-powered coding assistant designed for Android developers. The software integrates directly into developer environments such as Android Studio and JetBrains IDEs, helping programmers write, manage and optimise code more efficiently.

He suggested that advances in AI models are accelerating at a historic pace. “I've watched model capabilities compound at a staggering rate and we're clearly on the brink of recursive superintelligence. This is the most important problem to solve in history and requires an immense amount of resources to realise,” he wrote.

Explaining his decision to join Musk’s companies, he said: “xAI is the place to build the future. Frontier compute, extraordinary talent, and a strong hold on physical intelligence and space.”

Before founding Firebender, Gottumukkala worked as a software engineer at Paradigm, focusing on technology and crypto-related infrastructure. He was also selected as a KP Fellow, a programme that connects promising engineers and founders with VCs in Silicon Valley.

Devendra Chaplot’s move to SpaceX and xAI

Earlier, Indian AI researcher Devendra Chaplot had also announced that he was joining SpaceX and xAI, sharing a photo with Musk on social media.

In his post, Chaplot wrote: “I'm joining SpaceX and xAI, working closely with Elon and team to build superintelligence.”

He described the combination of Musk’s companies as unique in blending hardware and artificial intelligence. “Together SpaceX and xAI combine physical and digital intelligence under a leader who understands hardware at the deepest level,” he wrote.

Chaplot also highlighted the culture at the companies as a key draw. “Add a high-agency culture with frontier-scale resources, and you get the possibility to achieve something truly unique.”

Reflecting on his career journey, he added that he was eager to continue working in areas that have long interested him. “I’m excited to advance the fields I’ve obsessed over for years, from robotics research to building AI models on the founding teams of Mistral and TML.”

Chaplot previously worked at Thinking Machines Lab and was also part of the founding team at French AI startup Mistral. Earlier in his career, he spent time at Facebook’s AI research division and worked as a research associate at Samsung.

He completed his undergraduate studies at IIT Bombay and later earned a Master’s degree in Language Technology and a PhD in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University.

Online backlash and immigration debate

Chaplot’s announcement quickly triggered a wave of trolling on social media. Some users criticised Musk for hiring another Indian engineer while simultaneously speaking about immigration and demographic changes in Western countries.

The debate resurfaced broader arguments around the H-1B visa programme, which Silicon Valley companies rely on heavily to recruit specialised engineering talent from overseas. 

Musk has repeatedly supported the visa system, arguing that it helps technology companies attract top global talent.

Musk acknowledges hiring missteps at xAI

Amid the growing focus on recruitment, Musk recently said that xAI would revisit past hiring decisions and reconnect with candidates who may have been overlooked.

In a post on X, Musk wrote: “Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview @xAI. My apologies.”

He added that the company’s leadership is reviewing earlier interview records. “@BarisAkis and I are going through the company interview history and reaching back out to promising candidates.”

The move comes as xAI expands its research and engineering teams to build advanced AI models and systems.

Musk’s spat with Vinod Khosla

The hiring discussion has also intersected with a public dispute between Musk and Indian-American venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

Khosla had urged engineers, particularly minorities, to leave Musk’s companies and join startups backed by his venture firm.

In a post on X, Khosla wrote: “All non-whites in @tesla, @SpaceX @X etc and all decent whites should quit and join our portfolio.”

Musk responded sharply, calling Khosla a “pompous a******” while referencing earlier disagreements between the two.

Growing Indian presence in frontier AI

Even as the debate continues online, Musk’s companies appear to be doubling down on recruiting global engineering talent, including a growing number of Indian-origin researchers and founders, as xAI ramps up efforts to build advanced AI systems aimed at achieving what Musk has repeatedly described as “superintelligence.”