Elon Musk has initiated another round of departures at his artificial intelligence company xAI, removing additional co-founders due to his concerns about poor performance in the startup’s coding operations, according to a Financial Times report released Friday.
Last month, Musk restructured xAI’s leadership team in preparation for a potential public stock offering that could become one of the largest in history, following the company’s integration with his space exploration business SpaceX.
The tech billionaire brought in troubleshooters from SpaceX and Tesla to evaluate xAI’s operations, resulting in the termination of multiple workers whose performance was considered insufficient, the Financial Times reported.
Guodong Zhang, a co-founder who led xAI’s Imagine division, informed his coworkers of his departure after Musk held him responsible for problems with the coding software and stripped him of his main responsibilities, according to two sources familiar with the situation cited in the report.
Zhang announced his exit through a post on X Thursday.
Another co-founder, Zihang Dai, also departed from xAI earlier this week, the report indicated. These departures mean the artificial intelligence company, established three years ago, now retains just two of the 12 original co-founders who assisted Musk in launching xAI in March 2023.
SpaceX, which acquired xAI to form a company valued at $1.25 trillion, has not yet provided a response to Reuters’ request for comment.
Employees at xAI have expressed concerns that the organizational turmoil is hurting workplace morale and preventing the company from achieving its maximum capabilities, the Financial Times report stated.
Research staff members continue departing due to exhaustion from Musk’s demanding work culture described as “extremely hardcore” or after accepting superior employment opportunities with competing companies.
Hiring managers have been reaching out to previously rejected job candidates to extend new employment offers, frequently with enhanced compensation packages, the report noted.
“Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview at xAI. My apologies,” Musk wrote in a Friday post on X, stating he would reconnect with qualified candidates.
On Thursday, xAI recruited Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg from Cursor, a startup specializing in code generation technology.
