Elon Musk is responding to a significant number of recent departures from xAI, notably including two additional co-founders this week, which now accounts for half of the initial 12 co-founders.
During an all-hands meeting held on Tuesday evening, Musk attributed these exits to issues of organizational fit rather than individual performance. As reported by The New York Times, he stated, “Because we’ve reached a certain scale, we’re organizing the company to be more effective at this scale. And actually, when this happens, there’s some people who are better suited for the early stages of a company and less suited for the later stages.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Musk elaborated further on X, explicitly stating that these departures were not voluntary. He posted, “xAI was reorganized a few days ago to improve speed of execution. As a company grows, especially as quickly as xAI, the structure must evolve just like any living organism. This unfortunately required parting ways with some people.”
He also indicated that the company is “hiring aggressively,” concluding with a characteristic Muskian invitation: “Join xAI if the idea of mass drivers on the Moon appeals to you.”
The rapid departure of half of its co-founders naturally prompts scrutiny, and Musk’s public statements appear strategically aimed at shaping the narrative, portraying these exits as essential for the company's evolution rather than a challenge.
In aggregate, a minimum of 11 engineers, alongside the two co-founders, have publicly declared their departure from xAI over the last week, though a couple of these exits reportedly took place several weeks prior.
Three of the departing individuals have indicated plans to launch a new venture with other former xAI engineers, though specific details remain undisclosed. Other ex-employees have suggested a preference for greater autonomy and the agility of smaller teams to accelerate the development of cutting-edge technology, aligning with the expected acceleration in AI productivity.
Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, an xAI co-founder and its lead for reasoning, articulated in his resignation announcement: “It’s time for my next chapter. It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.”
Shayan Salehian, who contributed to product infrastructure and post-training model behavior at xAI and previously at Twitter/X, announced last week his departure to “start something new.”
Vahid Kazemi, who had a brief tenure focusing on machine learning, shared on Tuesday that his departure occurred several weeks prior, stating, “IMO, all AI labs are building the exact same thing, and it’s boring … So, I’m starting something new.”
Roland Gavrilescu, another former xAI engineer, initially departed in November to establish Nuraline, a company focused on “forward-deployed AI agents.” However, he updated his status on Tuesday, indicating he has since left Nuraline to construct “something new with others that left xAI.”
These personnel changes unfold amidst considerable controversy for xAI. The company is currently under regulatory scrutiny following instances where its Grok AI generated nonconsensual explicit deepfakes of women and children, which were then circulated on X. Last week, French authorities even conducted a raid on X's offices as part of an ongoing investigation. Furthermore, xAI is progressing towards a planned IPO later this year, having been legally acquired by SpaceX just last week.
Concurrently, Musk himself is embroiled in personal controversy, as Justice Department files revealed extensive communications with convicted rapist and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The disclosed emails indicate Musk discussed visiting Epstein’s island on two distinct occasions in 2012 and 2013. Epstein had been first convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008.
With xAI’s current workforce exceeding 1,000 employees, these departures are not anticipated to significantly impact the company's short-term operational capabilities. Nevertheless, the swift succession of recent exits has gained considerable traction online, with X users humorously declaring their own "departures from xAI" despite never having been employed there—illustrating the rapid spread of a "mass exodus" narrative across Musk’s social platform.
Despite Musk’s characterization of the reorganization as a calculated move, the involuntary exit of co-founders is seldom indicative of a seamless scaling process. The subsequent departure of multiple engineers, coupled with at least three planning to launch a new venture collectively, implies that these exits might stem from more profound internal tensions. In the highly competitive and talent-driven field of frontier AI, where reputation is paramount, xAI's capacity to draw and retain leading researchers will face a significant test against rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
TechCrunch has sought additional commentary from xAI regarding these developments.
The following individuals have publicly disclosed their departures from xAI on X in recent days:
February 6: Ayush Jaiswal, an engineer, announced his last week at xAI, stating plans to “take a few months to spend time with family & tinker with AI.”
February 7: Shayan Salehian, who focused on product infrastructure and post-training model behavior at xAI and previously at X, declared his exit to “start something new,” marking the end of his “7+ year chapter working at Twitter, X, and xAI with so much gratitude.” He credited working with Elon Musk for teaching him “obsessive attention to detail, maniacal urgency, and to think from first principles.”
February 9: Simon Zhai, a Member of Technical Staff (MTS), posted about his final day at xAI, expressing fortune for the opportunity and calling it “an amazing journey.”
February 9: Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, co-founder and reasoning lead, announced his resignation, stating, “It’s time for my next chapter. It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.”
February 10: Jimmy Ba, co-founder and research/safety lead, marked his last day at xAI, remarking, “Last day at xAI. We are heading to an age of 100x productivity with the right tools. Recursive self improvement loops likely go live in the next 12 months. It’s time to recalibrate my gradient on the big picture. 2026 is gonna be insane and likely the busiest (and most consequential) year for the future of our species.”
February 10: Vahid Kazemi, an ML PhD, confirmed his departure from xAI “a few weeks ago,” commenting, “IMO, all AI labs are building the exact same thing, and it’s boring. I think there’s room for more creativity. So, I’m starting something new.”
February 10: Hang Gao, involved in multimodal initiatives like Grok Imagine, stated, “I left xAI today.” He characterized his tenure as “truly rewarding,” highlighting his contributions to Grok Imagine’s releases and commending the team’s “humble craftsmanship and ambitious vision.”
February 10: Roland Gavrilescu, an engineer who had previously left in November to start Nuraline, posted, “I left xAI. Building something new with others that left xAI. We’re hiring :)”
February 10: Chace Lee, a founding team member of Macrohard—an AI-only software venture under xAI aimed at automating software development using Grok-powered multi-agent systems (its name a playful jab at Microsoft)—wrote, “Taking a brief reset, then back to the frontier.”
February 11: Andrew Ma, who joined xAI when X was still Twitter and contributed to app and recommendation model enhancements including “the X video feed, search bar, user modeling, starter-packs and the home feed model,” wrote, “I’m excited about the future- not sure what I’ll be doing yet (my DMs are open), but there is a world to be changed and no time to waste. Go team, stay focused, be energized, I can’t wait to see you all on the moon and beyond, believe me when I say there is no one that I trust more on the entire planet to get there, there is a world to win.”
February 12: Radhakrishnan (Rad) Venkataramani, who focused on reasoning and reinforcement learning systems for Grok, wrote, “The last 8 months in RL systems/SWE-RL team pushing our coding model to be SOTA and toward recursive self improvement, will always be the most memorable of my lifetime…We’re at an inflection point where intelligence begins accelerating itself, and from here the trajectory only goes vertical.”
This report was initially published on February 11 and has since been updated to reflect further employee departures.
For individuals with sensitive tips or confidential documents related to the inner workings of the AI industry, including companies shaping its future and those affected by their decisions, please contact Rebecca Bellan at [email protected], Russell Brandom at [email protected], or Tim Fernholz at [email protected]. Secure communication is
The Editorial Staff at AIChief is a team of professional content writers with extensive experience in AI and marketing. Founded in 2025, AIChief has quickly grown into the largest free AI resource hub in the industry.