Emad Mostaque

Mohammad Emad Mostaque (Bengali: মোহম্মদ ইমাদ মোশতাক; born 17 April 1983) is a British-Bangladeshi businessman, mathematician, and former hedge fund manager.[3] He is the founder of Intelligent Internet and the author of The Last Economy.[4][5] He is the co-founder and was CEO of Stability AI until March 2024,[6] the company behind Stable Diffusion.[7][8][9] Mostaque was born in April 1983 to a Bengali Muslim family in Jordan. He was taken to Dhaka, Bangladesh, a month after his birth, and migrated with his family to the United Kingdom at the age of seven.[2] He earned an MA in mathematics and computer science from the University of Oxford.[10] At age 19, Mostaque met his wife while on a student trip to the United States. He has been diagnosed with Asperger's and ADHD. In his twenties, he became interested in helping the Islamic world by creating online forums for Muslim communities and developing "Islamic AI" which would help guide people on their religious journey.[2] Mostaque began his career as a hedge fund manager who was involved in crude oil trading and providing advice to governments on Middle East affairs and Islamic extremism.[3][11][12] During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his co-founder Cyrus Hodes led an effort to use big data to assist in governmental decision-making.[3][13] launched at Stanford University with the World Bank, UNESCO, World Health Organization and others.[14] In 2019 Mostaque founded Symmitree, a startup that aimed to reduce the cost of technology for individuals living in poverty, which he worked on for a year.[7] The project failed, according to co-founder Cyrus Hodes, due to Mostaque's negligence, ineptitude and corruption. Mostaque said it was due to failed execution from the company's partners.[15]