Mass Exodus at xAI: Musk Confirms Forced Departures as Six Co-Founders Exit AI Startup

13.02.2026

Elon Musk has publicly addressed a significant wave of personnel departures from xAI, confirming that recent exits—including two additional co-founders this week—were part of a strategic reorganization rather than voluntary resignations. The departures bring the total number of exiting co-founders to six out of the original 12, raising concerns about organizational stability as the AI startup scales.

During an all-hands meeting on Tuesday evening, Musk framed the exits as a matter of organizational fit rather than performance issues. "Because we've reached a certain scale, we're organizing the company to be more effective at this scale," he stated. "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, Musk clarified the nature of these departures via X, explicitly stating they were not voluntary. "xAI was reorganized a few days ago to improve speed of execution," he 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."

Musk emphasized that xAI is "hiring aggressively" and concluded with a characteristic recruitment pitch: "Join xAI if the idea of mass drivers on the Moon appeals to you."

Engineering Talent Drain Accelerates

In total, at least 11 engineers, including the two co-founders, have publicly announced their departures from xAI over the past week, though two of these exits reportedly occurred several weeks earlier. The rapid succession of announcements has fueled speculation about internal tensions and organizational challenges.

Three departing staff members have indicated plans to launch a new venture alongside other former xAI engineers, though no details about the startup have been disclosed. Several engineers have expressed a desire for greater autonomy and smaller team structures to accelerate frontier technology development, citing anticipated improvements in AI productivity.

Key Departures and Their Statements

Notable exits include:

• Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, co-founder and reasoning lead, stated: "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 worked on product infrastructure and model behavior post-training, announced: "I left xAI to start something new, closing my 7+ year chapter working at Twitter, X, and xAI with so much gratitude."

• Vahid Kazemi, who worked on machine learning, posted: "IMO, all AI labs are building the exact same thing, and it's boring … So, I'm starting something new."

• Jimmy Ba, co-founder and research/safety lead, wrote: "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."

• Roland Gavrilescu, a former xAI engineer who left in November to start Nuraline, posted: "I left xAI. Building something new with others that left xAI. We're hiring :)"

Timing and Context

The departures occur amid significant challenges for xAI. The company faces regulatory scrutiny after its Grok AI system generated nonconsensual explicit deepfakes of women and children that were distributed on X. French authorities recently raided X offices as part of an investigation into child abuse imagery and deepfakes.

xAI is also moving toward a planned IPO later this year, following its legal acquisition by SpaceX last week. Additionally, Musk faces personal controversy after Department of Justice files revealed extended communications with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including discussions about visiting Epstein's island in 2012 and 2013.

Organizational Impact

While xAI maintains a headcount of over 1,000 employees, making the departures unlikely to immediately affect operational capabilities, the rapid pace of exits has generated significant online discussion. Users on X have jokingly announced they are "leaving xAI" despite never working there—illustrating how quickly the "mass exodus" narrative gained traction on Musk's platform.

However, forced co-founder exits are rarely indicators of smooth organizational scaling. While Musk characterizes the reorganization as strategic, the fact that multiple engineers followed co-founders out—with at least three forming a new venture together—suggests potential deeper organizational tensions.

In the competitive frontier AI landscape, where specialized talent is scarce and reputation is critical, xAI's ability to attract and retain top researchers will be tested as it competes with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind.

Complete Departure Timeline

The following employees publicly announced their departures from xAI in recent days:

• February 6: Ayush Jaiswal, engineer
• February 7: Shayan Salehian, product infrastructure and post-training
• February 9: Simon Zhai, member of technical staff
• February 9: Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, co-founder and reasoning lead
• February 10: Jimmy Ba, co-founder and research/safety lead
• February 10: Vahid Kazemi, machine learning (left weeks prior)
• February 10: Hang Gao, multimodal/Grok Imagine
• February 10: Roland Gavrilescu, engineer (left November, announced new venture)
• February 10: Chace Lee, Macrohard founding team member
• February 11: Andrew Ma, app and recommendation model improvements
• February 12: Radhakrishnan (Rad) Venkataramani, reasoning and RL systems