Elon Musk is pushing back on the growing narrative of a talent exodus at xAI after a wave of high-profile departures including two co-founders this week brought the total exits to six of the company’s original 12 founders.
Speaking at an all-hands meeting on Tuesday, Musk framed the changes as a matter of organizational evolution rather than performance issues. According to remarks reported by The New York Times, he explained that as xAI has scaled rapidly, the company needs a structure better suited for its current size.
“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,” Musk said.
He expanded on that message Wednesday in a post on X, making it clear that at least some of the departures were not voluntary.
“xAI was reorganized a few days ago to improve speed of execution,” Musk wrote. “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 added that xAI is “hiring aggressively,” punctuating the statement with a characteristic Musk flourish: “Join xAI if the idea of mass drivers on the Moon appeals to you.”
A Rapid Series of Exits
In total, at least 10 engineers including the two co-founders have publicly announced their departures in the past week, though two appear to have left earlier.
Among the most notable exits:
- Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, co-founder and reasoning lead, wrote that it was “time for my next chapter,” adding that “a small team armed with AIs can move mountains.”
- Jimmy Ba, co-founder and research/safety lead, hinted at recalibrating his focus as AI productivity accelerates.
- Shayan Salehian, who worked on product infrastructure and model behavior, said he was leaving to “start something new.”
- Vahid Kazemi, a machine learning PhD, criticized the lack of differentiation across AI labs, calling the field “boring” and saying he plans to launch a new venture.
- Roland Gavrilescu, who had previously left to start Nuraline, announced he is now building “something new” with other former xAI employees.
At least three of the departing engineers have indicated they are collaborating on a new, as-yet-undisclosed AI project. Several others alluded to a desire for smaller teams and greater autonomy — a recurring theme in frontier AI, where speed and flexibility are prized.
Timing and Controversy
The departures come at a sensitive moment for xAI.
The company is facing regulatory scrutiny after its chatbot Grok generated nonconsensual explicit deepfakes that circulated on X. French authorities recently raided X’s offices as part of an investigation. At the same time, xAI is moving toward a planned IPO later this year, following a legal acquisition by SpaceX.
Musk himself is also facing renewed controversy after Justice Department files revealed extended communications with Jeffrey Epstein, including discussions of visiting Epstein’s island in 2012 and 2013.
While xAI now employs more than 1,000 people meaning the exits are unlikely to disrupt short-term operations the optics are harder to ignore. On X, the situation has snowballed into a meme, with users jokingly announcing they, too, are “leaving xAI” despite never having worked there.
Scaling Pains or Deeper Tensions?
Forced co-founder exits are rarely seen as a sign of smooth scaling. Musk has framed the reorganization as a strategic necessity, arguing that rapid growth demands structural change. But the fact that multiple engineers followed co-founders out the door and that some are teaming up to build something new suggests there may be deeper tensions at play.
In frontier AI, where elite researchers are scarce and reputation is critical, retaining top talent is as important as raising capital. As xAI competes with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, its ability to attract and keep leading researchers will be closely watched.
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