Top AI expert Devendra Chaplot, formerly with Elon Musk, joins Sarvam from xAI
Indian AI startup Sarvam has just secured a major victory in the battle for AI talent. Devendra Singh Chaplot, a prominent researcher in the field, has joined Sarvam after leaving xAI (now SpaceXAI), Elon Musk’s company. He will serve as a part-time advisor to the startup.
For context, Devendra Chaplot is one of Silicon Valley’s most renowned AI researchers. Before joining Elon Musk and xAI, he was part of the founding teams of two distinct AI startups: France’s Mistral and Thinking Machine Labs, founded by Mira Murati (a former OpenAI executive).
Chaplot’s arrival could provide a significant boost to Sarvam, which is currently developing a one-trillion-parameter AI model from scratch in India. Moreover, this marks the first time an Indian startup has succeeded in attracting a key AI researcher at a time when companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are vying for top talent with multi-million-dollar salaries.
Chaplot appeared on stage at the Sarvam Epoch 2026 event in Bengaluru. He expressed his excitement about joining the Indian startup but emphasized the need for key talent. “I’ve been part of founding teams at cutting-edge labs. You need a handful of experts and experienced individuals, but we also require more motivated talent capable of getting up to speed quickly and driving the company forward,” he stated.
Chaplot’s appointment comes as Sarvam opens a fundamental AI research lab in San Francisco, USA. Based in Palo Alto, California, Chaplot will work out of this lab.
Who is Devendra Chaplot?
Chaplot is an IIT Bombay alumnus with over a decade of experience in the field of AI. In March of this year, he joined xAI, Elon Musk’s company. However, according to his LinkedIn profile, Devendra Chaplot left the startup in April after a brief stint.
Prior to xAI, this AI expert served as the technical lead for data and pre-training at Thinking Machine Labs—an AI startup founded by Mira Murati and other former OpenAI executives—where he worked on the Tinker training API.
Devendra Chaplot was a founding researcher at Mistral AI, where he participated in training Mistral 7B, Mixtral 8x7B, and Mistral Large, and helped open Mistral’s office in Palo Alto, USA.
Previously, Chaplot worked at Facebook AI Research and held research associate positions at Apple and Samsung. His research has focused on machine learning, robotics, computer vision, embodied AI, navigation, multimodal systems, and large language models.
Regarding his academic background, Devendra Chaplot holds a PhD in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University, where he also earned a master’s degree in Language Technologies. He also obtained his undergraduate degree (B.Tech.) in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay.
Devendra Chaplot Says Sarvam Needs Motivated Talent
Looking ahead, Devendra Chaplot emphasised the need for Indian AI models capable of meeting local demands. He added, “In India, we have a vast diversity of languages and cultures. We want models that can be customized. That is why it is crucial that we develop the models here.”
Although Chaplot acknowledged that models can become obsolete over time, the knowledge gained during their development serves to create new ones in the future. “The model itself is not the goal, as it eventually becomes obsolete; what endures above all is knowing how to build and train your own models,” noted the Sarvam advisor.
Devendra Chaplot’s expertise will be invaluable to Sarvam, a rapidly growing company. At the Sarvam Epoch event, the AI startup made several major announcements, including Saras V4, Bulbul V4, and Vision 2.0.
Sarvam is India’s first AI “unicorn,” boasting a market valuation of $1.5 billion after raising $234 million in a Series B funding round led by HCLTech.