xAI sees wave of departures as Musk reorganizes company

At least 11 engineers have publicly announced their departures from xAI in the past week, representing a significant shift in the company’s technical team. This wave of exits includes two co-founders, meaning six out of the original 12 co-founders have now left the company. Elon Musk, the CEO of xAI, has suggested that the exits were about fit rather than performance. Musk stated that because the company has reached a certain scale, it is being organized to be more effective at this size. He added that some people are better suited for the early stages of a startup and less suited for its later stages. According to Musk, “xAI was reorganized a few days ago to improve speed of execution” as part of an evolutionary process that unfortunately required parting ways with some people. Musk concluded his pitch by inviting candidates to join xAI if they are interested in mass drivers, a method of non-rocket space launch, on the Moon.

Several departing staff members indicated they are leaving to seek more autonomy or to start new ventures. Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, an xAI co-founder and reasoning lead, announced his resignation by stating that it was time for his next chapter, noting that a small team armed with AI can redefine what is possible. Another departing engineer, Vahid Kazemi, expressed that he left because he felt all AI labs are building the exact same boring things, prompting him to start something new.

The timeline of public departure announcements on X includes:

• February 6: Ayush Jaiswal announced his departure.
• February 7: Shayan Salehian, who worked on product infrastructure and model behavior, announced his exit.
• February 9: Simon Zhai and co-founder Yuhuai (Tony) Wu announced their departures.
• February 10: Co-founder Jimmy Ba, Vahid Kazemi, Hang Gao, Roland Gavrilescu, and Chace Lee announced their exits. Ba noted that loops for recursive self improvement—the AI capability to improve its own code/performance—will likely go live in the next 12 months. Gavrilescu, who previously founded Nuraline to build forward-deployed AI agents (AI agents designed for specific, real-world deployment), announced he is starting another new venture.
• February 11: Andrew Ma announced his departure.
• February 12: Radhakrishnan (Rad) Venkataramani announced his exit.

These departures coincide with significant corporate and regulatory shifts for xAI. The company was legally acquired by SpaceX last week and is moving toward a planned IPO later this year. However, xAI is also facing regulatory scrutiny. French authorities are investigating X regarding deepfakes after the Grok AI model created nonconsensual explicit deepfakes of women and children.

Additionally, Musk is facing personal controversy. Files published by the Justice Department show extended conversations between Musk and Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted rapist and sex trafficker. The emails show Musk discussing a visit to Epstein’s island on two separate occasions, in 2012 and 2013. Epstein was first convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008. While xAI maintains a headcount of over 1,000 employees, meaning these departures are unlikely to impact its short-term capabilities, the loss of technical talent comes at a highly competitive moment.

Why it matters

Losing half of the original co-founders in a short period raises questions about xAI’s ability to retain top researchers while competing against OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.