Over 50 Researchers and Engineers Leave xAI Since SpaceX Acquisition and Rebranding

More than 50 researchers and engineers have departed from SpaceXAI since February, according to The Information. TechCrunch reported that the exits include key leaders across coding, world models and Grok voice. The company’s core pre-training team has dwindled to just a handful of people.

SpaceX acquired xAI in February. Musk renamed the combined company SpaceXAI earlier this month. SpaceX installed new leadership at the company after acquiring xAI. The Information reported that at least 11 xAI employees have defected to Meta since February.

At least seven xAI employees have left to join Mira Murati’s Thinking Machine Labs since February. TechCrunch previously reported on 11 of the xAI departures announced directly after the merger, including two co-founders. The pre-training departures followed the exit of team lead Juntang Zhuang.

His departure was followed by additional pre-training departures. Many have questioned whether the company is still committed to developing leading models because pre-training is the first step to building new AI models. A source who spoke to The Information said Musk set unrealistic deadlines for training models.

The source said the deadlines led to cutting corners on Grok. Musk’s culture of extreme work led some staff to leave, The Information reported. SpaceX regularly offers tenders so employees can sell vested shares privately.

Several of the exits could have been driven by a desire to cash out. Others might simply feel confident that their equity is close to liquidity given the company’s blockbuster IPO expectations. Once employees see the financial upside, they are less likely to work at a company that puts undue pressure on them and may not be building the leading models they want to work on, The Information reported.