Key takeaways
- Six of xAI's 12 founding members have departed, raising concerns ahead of the IPO.
- Co-Founder Yuhuai Wu and Jimmy Ba announced their exits, emphasizing amicable departures.
- xAI's flagship chatbot Grok faces criticism for erratic behavior and legal issues.
- Departures may signal challenges within xAI as it prepares for significant financial transitions.
- Founders typically move on after three years, but the timing coincides with potential financial gains.
xAI Co-Founder Yuhuai (Tony) Wu recently announced his departure from the company. “It’s time for my next chapter,” Wu wrote in a late-night post on X. “It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.”
On February 12, Wu’s exit was followed by fellow Co-Founder Jimmy Ba, a direct reportee to Elon Musk, who also confirmed his departure on X. “Enormous thanks to Elon Musk 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,” the post read.
Notably, six of the company’s 12 founding team members have now left—five of them within the past year alone. Infrastructure lead Kyle Kosic departed for OpenAI in mid-2024, followed by Google veteran Christian Szegedy in February 2025. In August, Igor Babuschkin left to establish a venture firm, while Microsoft alumnus Greg Yang exited last month, citing health reasons.
By most accounts, the departures have been amicable. Nearly three years in, it is not unusual for founders to move on. With SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI completed and an IPO reportedly on the horizon, early team members may likely be poised for significant financial gains.
Yet, other factors may be at play. xAI’s flagship chatbot, Grok, has faced criticism for erratic behaviour and alleged internal manipulation—issues that could easily strain technical teams. More recently, updates to its image-generation tools led to a surge of deepfake pornography on the platform, prompting mounting legal and reputational concerns.
