xAI Loses Half of Its Founding Team: Co-founders Wu and Ba Announce Departures

In a significant development for Elon Musk's AI venture, xAI has lost two more co-founders within 24 hours. Yuhuai (Tony) Wu announced his departure on Monday evening, followed by Jimmy Ba, who reported directly to Musk, on Tuesday afternoon.

"It's time for my next chapter," Wu stated in his announcement. "It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what's possible." Ba expressed gratitude in his departure note: "Enormous thanks to @elonmusk for bringing us together on this incredible journey. So proud of what the xAI team has done and will continue to stay close as a friend of the team."

Pattern of Departures

These exits represent a concerning trend for the AI laboratory. Of the company's original 12-person founding team, six members have now departed, with five exits occurring within the past year alone:

• Kyle Kosic (Infrastructure Lead) - joined OpenAI in mid-2024
• Christian Szegedy (Google veteran) - departed February 2025
• Igor Babuschkin - left to establish a venture firm in August 2025
• Greg Yang (Microsoft alumnus) - departed last month citing health concerns
• Yuhuai Wu and Jimmy Ba - announced departures this week

Potential Contributing Factors

While all departures have reportedly been amicable, multiple factors may be influencing the exodus. Nearly three years into the company's lifecycle, with SpaceX's acquisition of xAI completed and an IPO scheduled for the coming months, founding team members are positioned for substantial financial returns. The current AI startup funding environment presents attractive opportunities for senior researchers to launch independent ventures.

However, technical and operational challenges may also be contributing factors. The company's flagship product, the Grok chatbot, has experienced issues including anomalous behavior patterns and suspected internal manipulation. Recent modifications to xAI's image-generation capabilities resulted in a proliferation of deepfake pornographic content on the platform, triggering regulatory scrutiny and potential legal ramifications.

Strategic Implications

The timing of these departures presents significant challenges for xAI. With an IPO imminent and Musk's ambitious plans for orbital data centers in development, the company faces intense pressure to execute on its roadmap. The competitive landscape demands sustained innovation, as Grok must maintain parity with state-of-the-art models from OpenAI and Anthropic to ensure IPO success.

The cumulative impact of losing half the founding technical team raises questions about organizational stability and talent retention strategies. As model development cycles accelerate and market expectations intensify, xAI's ability to retain top-tier AI engineering talent will be critical to its long-term viability and market positioning.