Stable Diffusion creator leaves Stability AI

Stability AI is losing one of its top technical employees, Sifted has learned from two sources close to the company.

Researcher Robin Rombach, who joined the London-based startup in 2022, is leaving his leadership position in Stability's science and research team.

Rombach was one of two scientists at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich who developed the Stable Diffusion image generation model, a technology that helped Stability AI raise $101 million in Series A funding from Lightspeed and Coatue in 2022.

Stability was closely involved in the development of Stable Diffusion - the company helped fund her training costs - but she was not involved in the technical work of building the model. Thus, the departure of a Heidelberg University graduate represents the departure of an important person responsible for the technology that helped the company become known.

"We would like to thank Robin for his contributions to Stability AI and wish him all the best in his future endeavors," a Stability spokesperson told Sifted, adding that the company remains "focused on commercializing our world-leading technology."

Rombach's departure followed a tumultuous 12 months for the company's technical team, during which it changed CTOs, lost its VP of product, VP of engineering, VP of research and development, head of research, and two heads of major language models.

Rombach has not yet commented publicly on his decision to leave Stability.