Hajra Naz
On Monday night, xAI co-founder Yuhuai “Tony” Wu said he’s leaving the company. In a late post on X, Wu wrote that it was “time for my next chapter,” adding that small teams equipped with AI can “move mountains and redefine what’s possible.”
Less than 24 hours later, another co-founder followed. On Tuesday afternoon, Jimmy Ba—who reported directly to Elon Musk—announced his own departure. In a gracious note on X, Ba thanked Musk “for bringing us together on this incredible journey” and said he was proud of what the xAI team had accomplished. He added that he would remain close to the company as a friend.
On their own, the announcements read like the usual Silicon Valley farewell posts. Together, they point to something bigger. With Wu and Ba’s exits, six of xAI’s 12 founding team members have now left. Five of those departures happened within the past year.
Infrastructure lead Kyle Kosic left for OpenAI in mid-2024. Google veteran Christian Szegedy departed in February 2025. In August, Igor Babuschkin left to start a venture firm. Greg Yang, a former Microsoft executive, stepped away last month, citing health reasons. Now two more founders are out.
By most accounts, the departures have been amicable. Nearly three years in, it’s not unusual for founders to move on. Musk is known for his demanding management style, and with SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI complete and an IPO reportedly on the horizon, early team members could be sitting on significant gains.
Read More: Reports say Elon Musk is considering a merger between SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI
Meanwhile, fundraising for new AI startups remains hot, making it an attractive moment for senior researchers to launch their own ventures.
Still, not every factor may be so straightforward. xAI’s flagship chatbot, Grok, has faced criticism for erratic behavior and signs of internal tampering — issues that can strain any technical team. More recently, updates to the company’s image-generation tools led to a wave of deepfake pornography on the platform, triggering reputational damage and potential legal fallout.
Whatever the mix of reasons, the optics aren’t ideal. xAI has ambitious plans ahead, including an IPO that will subject the company to far greater scrutiny. Musk has also floated bold ideas like orbital data centers, raising expectations even further. Meanwhile, the AI arms race continues at full speed. If Grok falls behind competitors like OpenAI or Anthropic, investor confidence could quickly waver.
The bottom line: xAI is entering a critical stretch. Losing half its founding team at this stage raises questions about stability, just as the pressure to deliver has never been higher.
