Jed McCaleb, the early architect behind Ripple and Stellar, is redirecting a portion of his crypto wealth into a very different frontier: brain-inspired artificial general intelligence.
In a Forbes interview, McCaleb said he will move roughly $1 billion from his XRP fortune — which has been estimated at about $3.9 billion — to fund AGI research outside the crypto sector. The investment will flow through the Astera Institute, a California-based nonprofit McCaleb founded, which has recently pivoted toward neuroscience-driven AI approaches. He’s also committing a further $600 million specifically to neuroscience research.
A brain as blueprint for AI
McCaleb’s vision is to study the mammalian brain as a direct blueprint for building more capable and controllable AI systems. Astera plans to use brain-computer interfaces to record neural activity in mice while they carry out everyday tasks (for example, navigating mazes). Those biological data and patterns, he says, will be used to design new AI architectures that move beyond today’s dominant transformer models.
McCaleb argues current mainstream AI methods — particularly transformers — excel at short-term prediction but struggle with long-term planning, decision-making and self-directed goals. By studying neural mechanisms, he believes researchers can create AI that’s both more capable and easier for humans to understand and control. “AI is going to be the most transformative thing that humans ever create,” he told Forbes.
From crypto detour to an AI comeback
McCaleb framed his cryptocurrency career as “a big detour” from a deeper, long-standing interest in AI. In recent years he has diversified his projects — including a reported $1 billion investment to build a private space station planned for 2025 — and is now refocusing on artificial intelligence. Although he remains a seminal figure in Ripple’s history, McCaleb left the company and has wound down his XRP holdings; reports say he sold off his remaining XRP by 2022.
A quick reminder of the crypto roots
McCaleb first came to prominence in crypto as a developer with prior experience running the early Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. In 2011 he began developing what became the Ripple protocol and later brought on key engineers like former Ripple CTO David Schwartz. Alongside Chris Larsen, he helped found the entity that evolved into Ripple Labs and served as CTO during the XRP Ledger’s early development. Early co-founders received large personal allocations — roughly 9 billion XRP each, about 9% of the supply — which helped fund McCaleb’s later ventures.
Why it matters
McCaleb’s shift is notable for both industries: it channels substantial crypto-era capital into neuroscience-inspired AGI research at a time when questions about AI capability, safety and interpretability are front and center. If successful, the approach could reshape how AI is built and governed — and shows how major crypto entrepreneurs are increasingly branching into adjacent technological frontiers.
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