Departures Announced On X
xAI co-founder Yuhuai, also known as Tony Wu, said on Monday night that he is leaving the company, writing on X, “It’s time for my next chapter,” and adding, “It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.” Less than a day later, on Tuesday afternoon, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, who reported directly to Elon Musk, said he is also leaving. Ba posted a message on X that thanked Musk “for bringing us together on this incredible journey” and said he was proud of what the team had done and would stay close as a friend of the team.
Pattern Of Founding Team Exits
The two announcements add to a series of departures from the company’s original leadership group. Six members of xAI’s 12-person founding team have now left, with five of those exits occurring 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. Microsoft alum Greg Yang left last month and cited health issues as the reason.
Context Around The Departures
The company’s splits have been described as amicable. Nearly three years after the company’s formation, founders may decide to move on for several reasons. Elon Musk is known as a demanding manager. SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI has been completed, and an initial public offering is expected in the coming months. People involved in the company are expected to receive financial gains from those developments. Fundraising conditions for AI startups have also been active, which can make independent ventures more attractive to senior researchers.
Product And Legal Issues
Other factors have also been present during this period. The company’s main product, the Grok chatbot, has faced reports of unusual behavior and what has been described as internal tampering. Changes to xAI’s image-generation tools recently led to the spread of deepfake pornography on the platform. Those changes have brought legal consequences that are described as slow-moving but ongoing.
Upcoming Scrutiny And Development Pace
An initial public offering would bring increased public and regulatory attention to the company. Musk has also discussed plans related to orbital data centers. At the same time, model development across the industry continues at a fast pace, and comparisons with systems from OpenAI and Anthropic remain part of the competitive context around Grok.
Featured image credits: Heute.at
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