‘First Time Heard Of Him': Elon Musk On 16-Year-Old Kairan Quazi Leaving SpaceX To Join Citadel Securities

Elon Musk has weighed in on the buzz around 16-year-old Kairan Quazi, but not in the way many expected. Reacting to the reports of the teen prodigy leaving SpaceX, Musk revealed hearing about Quazi for the first time in a post on X.

Sharing a report by Fortune, Elon Musk said, “First time I’ve ever heard of him.”

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1958024544280592685

Musk’s remarks come even as Quazi, as various reports indicate, has already lived a career that most engineers can only dream of. The teenager, who reportedly left Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is turning his attention to Wall Street. He has joined billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities as a Quantitative Developer.

According to Fortune, Quazi is no stranger to breaking barriers. At nine, he enrolled in community college. By the age of 10, he was interning at Intel Labs. A year later, he moved to Santa Clara University, where he went on to become the youngest graduate in its 172-year history.

His extraordinary rise drew attention in 2023, when SpaceX hired him at the age of 14. He worked on Starlink, focusing on network beam planning and optimisation problems. In a post on LinkedIn, Quazi summed up his technical journey, saying, “Current quant dev at CitSec working on low-latency options market making. Former software engineer at SpaceX (Starlink), worked on network beam planning and numerical optimisation.”

His journey has, however, not been without controversy. The same year he joined SpaceX, he clashed with LinkedIn, which locked him out for being under 16. He described the decision as “illogical, primitive nonsense,” reported Fortune. After regaining access, Quazi used the platform to criticise the education system, saying that “tests are not used to measure mastery, but the ability to regurgitate” and condemning what he called a “school factory” that prioritises fear and prestige over genuine learning.

Quazi’s early exposure to finance came through his mother, a former investment banker specialising in mergers and acquisitions, according to Fortune. He later observed firsthand how highly sought-after quantitative finance roles were among mathematics and computer science students.

“It’s one of the most prestigious industries you could go into as a computer scientist or mathematician,” he was quoted as saying by the Business Insider.

Quazi turned down offers from prominent AI labs and technology firms to join Citadel Securities, citing the company’s culture of meritocracy and rapid feedback. “Quant finance offers a pretty rare combination: the complexity and intellectual challenge that AI research also provides, but with a much faster pace. At Citadel Securities, I'll be able to see measurable impact in days, not months or years like many research environments,” he said, the Business Insider report mentioned.

Citadel Securities, which processes around 35% of retail stock trades in the United States, reported revenues nearing $10 billion in 2024. It is currently vying with the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI for top-tier talent in the technology. Recruiting a prodigy once dismissed as too young for LinkedIn but now trusted to build low-latency trading systems marks a significant win for Griffin’s trading empire, as per the Fortune report.