(Feb 6): Igor Babuschkin, co-founder of Elon Musk’s xAI, has agreed to buy a penthouse overlooking London’s Hyde Park for about £57 million, marking the most expensive UK home deal in more than a year.
Babuschkin decided on the purchase about two weeks ago, days before it was announced that Musk had combined SpaceX and xAI in a deal that valued the merged entity at US$1.25 trillion, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the information is private. It’s the first £50 million-plus London home deal since late 2024, when a mansion in Regent’s Park sold for about £139 million.
The penthouse, part of a luxury building that has 24-hour security, a 25-metre swimming pool, gym, beauty salon and spa treatment rooms, had previously been on the market for about £60 million. A spokesperson for Babuschkin did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk recruited Babuschkin in 2023 with the view of developing an alternative to ChatGPT, the high-profile chatbot built by OpenAI. He left xAI in 2025 to start Babuschkin Ventures, an investment firm focused on AI safety. Previously, he was a research engineer at Alphabet’s DeepMind AI unit.
The SpaceX-xAI tie-up announced this week gives SpaceX a valuation of about US$1 trillion and xAI a value of about US$250 billion.
XAI is under investigation by the UK’s data protection watchdog after its AI chatbot Grok provoked public and political outrage last month for allowing users to create sexualised images of real people — largely women and even children — on Musk’s social media platform X.
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Babuschkin’s home deal marks a rare high point for London’s high-end market that’s been buffetted by tax moves by the Labour government, including stamp duty increases and the abolition of a preferential status enjoyed by ultra-rich foreign residents. There were 40% fewer £5 million-plus sales in December compared with the same month a year ago, according to researcher LonRes, with activity expected to be further impacted by more taxation set to take effect in 2028.
In 2025, many of London’s most noteworthy home purchases took place in desirable West London enclaves close to Hyde Park. Crypto entrepreneur Stani Kulechov bought a mansion in the nearby Notting Hill district for £22 million in November, Bloomberg News reported earlier this week.
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