Jed McCaleb, founder of Ripple and Stellar (XLM), has announced plans to divert as much as $1 billion of his XRP fortune into a up-to-date investment outside the cryptocurrency space. The cryptocurrency founder and Silicon Valley billionaire is now focusing on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)whose goal is to build an artificial intelligence system based on the human brain.
Ripple’s founder will invest $1 billion in artificial intelligence research
In an interview with Forbes, McCaleb revealed plans to allocate approximately $1 billion of its estimated $3.9 billion in XRP wallets to fund AGI-focused efforts. This move comes after it earlier spent $1 billion to build a private space station in 2025.
The up-to-date investment is expected to be made through the Astera Institute, a California-based nonprofit research organization that McCaleb founded. Recently, the institute has increased its focus on neuroscience-inspired approaches to developing artificial intelligence. As a result, in addition to the $1 billion earmarked for the core AGI project, McCaleb announced that he would allocate another $600 million specifically for neuroscience research.
Ripple’s founder shared his ambitious goal of exploring the human brain as a model for building more productive and potentially safer artificial intelligence systems. He noted that Aster Institute researchers intend to operate brain-computer interfaces to record patterns of neural activity in mice as they perform everyday tasks such as navigating mazes. They would then record and operate this biological data and insights to design completely up-to-date artificial intelligence systems that go beyond the currently popular transformer models.
In the interview, McCaleb expressed skepticism about current mainstream artificial intelligence methods. He stressed that while transformers, a type of artificial intelligence model, are good at prediction, they have difficulty with long-term planning, decision-making and autonomous goals. He believes that using a brain-inspired platform could create an artificial intelligence system that is easier for humans to understand and control.
Interestingly, McCaleb described your time in cryptocurrencies as a “big break” from his deeper interests in artificial intelligence. He explained that he always wanted to work in artificial intelligence, but found the opportunity only after retiring from the cryptocurrency industry. He expressed sturdy belief in his ambition, declaring that “artificial intelligence will be the most transformative thing humans have ever created.” Although McCaleb remains a key figure in Ripple’s history, he has left the company and he sold all his XRP until 2022.
A quick overview of McCaleb’s role in Ripple and XRP
McCaleb initially entered the cryptocurrency industry as a programmer with previous experience running a platform the now defunct Mt.Goxone of the earliest enormous Bitcoin exchanges. In 2011, he began developing the Ripple protocol and later recruited key figures such as former Ripple CTO David Schwartz.
In 2022, McCaleb co-founded OpenCoin, which later became Ripple Labs, now Ripple. He started a company next door Chris Larsen and served as CTO, contributing to development XRP ledger (XRPL). Following the launch of XRPL, McCaleb and other early co-founders received personal stakes worth approximately 9 billion XRP, representing approximately 9% of the total supply. This allocation contributed significantly to his personal wealth today.
Featured image from Freepik, chart from Tradingview.com
