tech
February 11, 2026
Okay, now exactly half of xAI's founding team has left the company
Whatever the cause of the departures, the cumulative impact is alarming. There is a lot of work left to do at xAI, and an IPO will bring more scrutiny than the lab has ever faced before.
TL;DR
- xAI co-founders Yuhuai (Tony) Wu and Jimmy Ba have announced their departures.
- Six out of xAI's twelve-person founding team have now left the company.
- Five departures have occurred within the last year, including infrastructure lead Kyle Kosic and Google veteran Christian Szegedy.
- Reasons for departures are speculated to include financial windfalls from an upcoming IPO and potential friction points within the company.
- Issues with the Grok chatbot and controversial image-generation tools are cited as potential causes for concern.
- The high rate of departures raises alarms for xAI as it prepares for an IPO and faces intense pressure to deliver on its AI development goals.
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