Who is Rishabh Agrawal? IIT Bombay graduate who turned down ₹9.5 crore Meta offer to build his own AI startup

Rishabh Agrawal, an IIT Bombay graduate and AI entrepreneur, has responded to reports suggesting he rejected a million-dollar offer from Meta after a brief stint. Addressing the claims, Agrawal clarified in a pinned post on X that the offer was actually higher than what was being reported. However, he chose to walk away to focus on building his own AI startup.

“The offer was higher than what was reported”

Reiterating his stance, Agrawal wrote, “The offer was higher than what was reported. I rejected it because I wanted to build something of my own.” Despite the lucrative package, reportedly over ₹9.5 crore (around $1 million), he prioritised long-term vision over financial gain.

Decision to Leave Meta

"This is my last week at @AIatMeta. It was a tough decision not to continue with the new Superintelligence TBD lab, especially given the talent and compute density.” He continued “But after 7.5 years across Google Brain, DeepMind, and Meta, I felt the pull to take on a different kind of risk.” In the post, he said that by quitting his job, he chose to follow Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's own advice: “In a world that’s changing so fast, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk”.

Focus on His AI Startup

Now fully committed to his entrepreneurial journey, Agrawal said his AI venture better aligns with his long-term goals. While acknowledging that Meta’s offer was financially attractive, he emphasised that the opportunity to innovate independently was far more compelling.

Academic Background and Early Career

According to his LinkedIn profile, Agrawal is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, where he pursued Computer Science and Engineering after securing an impressive JEE All India Rank of 33. He later completed a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, with a thesis titled Beyond the status quo in deep reinforcement learning.

He began his professional journey in 2016 as an intern at JioSaavn (then Saavn), working on search and algorithms. In 2017, he interned with Tower Research Capital in Gurugram as part of its algorithmic trading team.

From June 2018 to May 2023, he worked at Google Brain as a Senior Research Scientist, specialising in deep reinforcement learning, before moving on to Meta and eventually launching his own venture.

[With TOI inputs]