Stability AI is exiting its London headquarters in the latest sign of upheaval at the firm following the sudden departure of its founder and CEO last week.
The generative AI business has been based at a two-storey office above a chicken shop in Notting Hill since May 2022, company records indicate. However, the site has since been listed as available for rent on a property website for a £100,000 annual fee, while an ‘office for rent’ sign recently appeared above its front door.
Stability AI did not respond to a request for comment. The firm is understood to have also been renting a second Notting Hill office, to which it may now be relocating staff based at its headquarters amid a downsizing. The chicken shop site is still listed as its registered headquarters on Companies House, while founder Emad Mostaque is still listed as a director and major shareholder. Some staff are also based overseas.
Mostaque unveiled his departure in a surprise announcement on Saturday morning, which he said was part of a refocus to “pursue decentralized AI.”
“I believe strongly in Stability AI’s mission and feel the company is in capable hands,” he said in a statement. “It is now time to ensure AI remains open and decentralised.”
In cryptic social media posts, Mostaque has since said: “Not going to beat centralized AI with more centralized AI” before posting a video of himself in a meeting with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Mostaque’s departure as not the first senior exit at the AI firm. In November last year, the company’s head of audio, Ed Newton-Rex, left amid a dispute over the firm’s copyright policy, telling the BBC he thought it was "exploitative" for any AI developer to use creative work without consent.
Shan Shan Wong, Stability’s COO, and CTO Christian Laforte have stepped in as interim co-CEOs.
