Twitter ex-CEO Parag Agarwal building AI startup, raises $30 million funding: Report

Agarwal was fired in October 2022 by Elon Musk, days after the billionaire's acquisition of the company now called X.

Published on: Jan 10, 2024, 13:05:14 IST

By HT News Desk, New Delhi

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Parag Agarwal, the India-born former CEO of X (previously Twitter) who was fired from the job by Elon Musk in October 2022 days after the billionaire's $44 billion acquisition of the company, has ventured into artificial intelligence (AI), and is building a startup of his own, according to The Insider (story behind paywall).

Agarwal, the social media giant's first Indian-origin CEO, was appointed in November 2021, holding the post for around 12 months. Musk then took over as CEO; in June 2023, he onboarded Linda Yaccarino, the incumbent chief executive.

Parag Agarwal's AI startup

While the startup's name and details were not revealed, the report stated that the venture will build software for developers of large language models (LLMs), taking on popular chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard.

Agarwal recently secured approximately $30 million ( ₹249 crore) for the AI initiative, in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures, an early supporter of OpenAI. Two other prominent firms – Index Ventures and First Round Capital – have also joined the deal.

Why Elon Musk sacked Parag Agarwal

According to Musk's biography, penned by author-journalist and ex-CNN chief executive Walter Isaacson, the world's richest person wanted a ‘fire-breathing dragon’ for the job, and the Ajmer-born Parag ‘is not that.’

“He is a really nice guy but managers should not aim to be liked. What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon and Parag is not that,” Musk said on Agarwal after a dinner meet in March 2022.

In July last year, Twitter was rebranded as ‘X.’

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HT News Desk
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