IITian rejects Meta’s million-dollar job offer to launch an Nvidia-backed startup to create AI scientists

If Mark Zuckerberg offers you a multi-million dollar package to join Meta’s elite Superintelligence Labs, you sign on the dotted line. That’s how you declare your arrival in Silicon Valley.

But AI researcher and IIT Bombay alumnus Rishabh Agarwal refused Zuckerberg’s offer and instead chose not to follow the standard playbook.

An IIT Bombay graduate with an All India Rank (AIR) 33 in JEE, Rishabh has worked at the world’s top AI labs, including Google Brain, DeepMind, and Meta, before co-founding Periodic Labs.