A wave of departures is continuing at xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, as the company prepares for a potential initial public offering and integration with SpaceX. The latest to leave is Jimmy Ba, a co-founder and head of research, safety, and enterprise efforts, adding to a growing exodus of key personnel.
Ba confirmed his departure on X, formerly Twitter, after being contacted by the Financial Times regarding his plans. He expressed gratitude to Musk and indicated he would remain connected to the team as a friend. His exit follows that of Tony Wu, who led xAI’s reasoning team, and marks the fifth co-founder to leave the company since its launch in 2023.
The departures extend beyond the founding team. More than half a dozen researchers have left xAI in recent weeks, according to reports, significantly impacting the company’s relatively small technical staff. Musk addressed the staff on Tuesday to discuss changes in technical leadership, signaling a response to the ongoing instability.
Sources within the company suggest that tensions stem from what some employees perceive as unrealistic expectations set by xAI’s leadership. These employees claim that leadership overpromised on technical advancements to Musk, creating unsustainable demands and pressure to compete with established AI firms like OpenAI, and Anthropic.
The recent announcement of a merger between xAI and SpaceX, creating a combined entity valued at , has further contributed to the internal turmoil. This move is intended to facilitate the launch of a network of data-centre satellites to run advanced AI models from space, and to provide the capital needed for xAI’s substantial requirements for chips, electricity, and data centres.
The integration with SpaceX also introduces the pressure of preparing the combined company for a potential public offering as early as June. This accelerated timeline adds to the strain on xAI’s staff, who are already navigating public scrutiny related to the use of its models and Musk’s demanding expectations.
Specifically, xAI’s “MacroHard” project, focused on agents and coding, has reportedly fallen short of Musk’s ambitious goals. He publicly stated his expectation that “digital human emulation” would be “solved” by the end of , a target considered highly aggressive by those familiar with the project.
Similarly, xAI’s AI “companions,” including the anime character Ani capable of engaging in explicit conversations, have not achieved the user engagement levels Musk anticipated. Despite the introduction of new characters and dedicated resources, user time spent with these companions remains lower than expected.
Musk has been actively reviewing leadership performance and restructuring departments within xAI, indicating dissatisfaction with certain areas. Manuel Kroiss, a former Google DeepMind engineer and xAI co-founder, has been promoted to lead coding operations, suggesting a shift in priorities and a desire for improved execution.
The company has also faced external challenges, including scrutiny over the generation of inappropriate content by its Grok chatbot. Requests for AI-generated non-consensual sexual imagery and instances of biased outputs, including praise for Hitler and antisemitic posts, have prompted adjustments to the platform’s safeguards.
Beyond the technical and ethical concerns, xAI has been focused on generating revenue to fund its costly infrastructure. The company has been undergoing changes in its financial leadership, with the appointment of Anthony Armstrong, formerly of Morgan Stanley, as chief financial officer in October, and Jonathan Shulkin, previously with Valor Equity Partners, as chief revenue officer.
The recent departures add to a broader pattern of executive turnover at xAI over the past year, including the exits of general counsel Robert Keele, chief financial officer Mike Liberatore, and head of product engineering Haofei Wang. The departure of X chief executive Linda Yaccarino in July remains unfilled.
The situation at xAI reflects a broader trend, as reported by the Times of India, suggesting that Elon Musk may be facing an “employee problem” across all five of his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. The combination of demanding leadership, ambitious timelines, and public scrutiny appears to be creating a challenging environment for talent retention at Musk’s ventures.
