PEOPLE / IDEAS / BIG BETS

People and their projects

16 researchers, founders and practitioners. What they are working on, what they say and what their projects have delivered.

People directory

16 people
Elon MuskSpaceX

Elon Musk

SpaceX mission statement · undated
“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great”

His vision is a spacefaring civilisation: a long-term ambition rather than a deadline.

Statement sourceNews and projects →
Sam AltmanOpenAI

Sam Altman

10 June 2025
“We are past the event horizon; the takeoff has started.”

In “The Gentle Singularity,” Altman lays out his forecast of accelerating AI progress. An archived author’s perspective.

Statement sourceNews and projects →
Dario AmodeiAnthropic

Dario Amodei

January 2026
“Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power”

Amodei asks whether our institutions are mature enough for this power. His forecast comes with a discussion of risks.

Statement sourceNews and projects →
Jensen HuangNVIDIA

Jensen Huang

10 March 2026
“it is essential infrastructure, like electricity and the internet.”

Huang sees AI as a system of energy, chips, infrastructure, models and applications.

Statement sourceNews and projects →
Demis HassabisGoogle DeepMind

Demis Hassabis

Profile · 23 October 2026

AI as a tool for scientific discovery.

Hassabis connects advances in artificial intelligence with scientific problems. Google DeepMind develops general-purpose models and specialised tools, including AlphaFold for studying protein structures.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Fei-Fei LiWorld Labs

Fei-Fei Li

Profile · 23 October 2026

Teaching AI to understand space.

Fei-Fei Li develops spatial intelligence: models that work with objects, scenes and interactions in three-dimensional environments. World Labs builds tools for generating and exploring these worlds.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Lisa SuAMD

Lisa Su

Profile · 23 October 2026

Processors and accelerators for AI.

Lisa Su leads AMD, which develops processors, accelerators and software tools for computing and AI. Her technology strategy spans an entire infrastructure, from individual chips to large systems.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Satya NadellaMicrosoft

Satya Nadella

Profile · 23 October 2026

Agents that take work through to completion.

Nadella connects Microsoft’s next phase with agents that execute workflows using an organisation’s context. His approach emphasises model choice, access controls and ownership of corporate knowledge.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Ilya SutskeverSafe Superintelligence

Ilya Sutskever

Profile · 23 October 2026

Capability and safety as one research problem.

Sutskever leads Safe Superintelligence, a laboratory with a stated single goal: building safe superintelligence. The company treats capability and safety as connected scientific and engineering problems. This is a research ambition.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Andrej KarpathyResearch and education

Andrej Karpathy

Profile · 23 October 2026

Understand a neural network by building it.

Karpathy explains neural networks through lectures and compact open-source projects. His materials trace a path from the basic mechanisms of training to language models and practical uses.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Arkady VolozhNebius

Arkady Volozh

Profile · 23 October 2026

The infrastructure that runs AI.

Arkady Volozh is building Nebius as a cloud platform for the full AI lifecycle, from data and model training to running finished services. His focus brings together computing capacity, software tools and engineering support.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Dmitry GrishinGrishin Robotics

Dmitry Grishin

Profile · 23 October 2026

Investing in early-stage technology companies.

Dmitry Grishin is the founding partner of Grishin Robotics. The fund backs early-stage companies across education, entertainment and tools for working together. Its approach starts with the user’s problem and the product.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Robin LiBaidu / China

Robin Li

Profile · 23 October 2026

Search, cloud AI and robotaxis.

Robin Li leads Baidu, which develops AI cloud infrastructure, productivity applications and the Apollo Go autonomous ride service. His direction connects digital assistants with systems operating in the physical world.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →
Pony MaTencent / China

Pony Ma

Profile · 23 October 2026

Social platforms and cloud services.

Ma Huateng, known as Pony Ma, sets Tencent’s strategic direction. The company connects communication, digital services and business tools, from Weixin and WeChat to cloud infrastructure.

Profile and sourcesNews and projects →

Statements reflect their authors’ views. Dates refer to the statements; portrait dates may differ. Russian statements are translated into English. Profile headlines without quotation marks are editorial. Profile dates record verification, not news or photograph dates. Photo credits and licences.

PEOPLE / DEVELOPMENTS

News and projects

Releases, research and public statements from these people and the companies they are associated with.

No published news for this selection yet. We will add a story when a substantive update is verified.