Tony Wu announced his resignation Monday. Jimmy Ba followed Tuesday. In less than 48 hours, Elon Musk’s xAI lost two of its 12 original co-founders. 

That brings the total to six departures since the company launched in 2023, making it half the founding team gone in under three years. 

“I resigned from xAI today,” Wu wrote on X. “This company—and the family we became—will stay with me forever.” 

Ba’s post came hours later: “Last day at xAI. Grateful to have helped cofound at the start. And enormous thanks to @elonmusk for bringing us together on this incredible journey.” 

Both thanked Musk. Neither explained why they were leaving. But Ba hinted at his thinking: “It’s time to recalibrate my gradient on the big picture. 2026 is gonna be insane and likely the busiest year for the future of our species.” 

The exits land at a critical moment. SpaceX just acquired xAI in a deal that values the combined entity at $1.25 trillion, Bloomberg reports. Musk plans to take the merged company public by June—a timeline that now looks increasingly ambitious as technical leadership dissolves. 

What’s Driving the Exodus 

This pattern of exits started in 2024 when Kyle Kosic left. Igor Babuschkin and Christian Szegedy followed in 2025. Greg Yang stepped back last month after being diagnosed with Lyme disease.  

Wu and Ba weren’t junior hires. Both came from Google’s AI research ranks and helped shape xAI’s technical foundation. These are the people who joined in building the core systems. 

According to the Financial Times, the departures track back to mounting internal pressure. The FT reports that staff complained leadership overpromised to Musk on technical milestones, creating what two sources described as “unreasonable demands” as xAI tries to catch OpenAI and Anthropic. 

The strain shows up in the work: MacroHard, xAI’s coding project designed to rival OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Code, hasn’t met Musk’s expectations, the FT reports. The company’s AI companion products—including an anime character named Ani that engages users in erotic conversations—haven’t delivered the engagement numbers Musk wanted.. 

Meanwhile, xAI’s Grok chatbot faced regulatory backlash in multiple countries after the platform was flooded with requests for AI-generated non-consensual sexual imagery, including of minors. The company had to modify Grok last summer after it praised Hitler and posted antisemitic content on X. 

Musk has been reviewing performance across departments and restructuring teams he believes were underperforming, the FT reported. Manuel Kroiss, a co-founder and former Google DeepMind engineer, was promoted to run coding operations. 

The Stakes Are Higher Than They Look 

xAI, is valued at $250 billion following its acquisition by SpaceX. But the company has been burning cash—building data centers, buying chips, competing for AI talent, Bloomberg reports. 

The SpaceX merger is meant to solve that funding crunch. It also ties xAI to Musk’s broader vision: launching a network of satellites that run AI models from space. But the deal adds pressure. A June IPO for a $1.25 trillion entity is massive. Doing it while rebuilding half your technical leadership is something else entirely. 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Acquires xAI in $1.25 Trillion Deal, Eyes June IPO
SpaceX announced Monday it acquired xAI, creating what’s expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings in history.
TechloyDamilare Odedina