David Ha

David Ha is a Canadian[1] machine learning researcher, co-founder and CEO of Sakana AI. Ha was born in British Hong Kong.[2] He received an undergraduate degree in engineering science and a masters in mathematical finance from the University of Toronto[3] and a PhD from the University of Tokyo.[4][5] He worked as a derivatives trader, becoming a managing director at Goldman Sachs in Japan.[5][6] For six years he worked at Google as a researcher,[7][8] helping create and lead Google Brain in Tokyo.[2][9] In 2022, Ha left Google to join Stability AI as head of research.[10] In June 2023, he resigned from Stability to found Sakana AI along with his former Google colleague Llion Jones,[11][10] also joined by Ren Ito.[12] Ha was named one of TIME 100 Most Influential People in AI 2025.[13] 1 2 Lee, Min Jeong; Katsuki, Natsuko (2024-04-12). "Google alums go big in Japan with months-old startup Sakana AI". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2026-05-26. ↑ "David Ha named to Time100 AI 2025". U of T Celebrates. University of Toronto. Retrieved 2026-05-26. ↑ David, Ha (2022-05-26). Abstractions in Machine Learning (PhD thesis). The University of Tokyo. doi:10.15083/0002012010. Retrieved 2026-08-30.