Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, just lost another key leader. Tony Wu, one of the original founding members, announced his resignation late Monday. His departure follows a string of other exits from the small group that helped Musk start the company in 2023.
Wu didn’t give a specific reason for leaving, but he shared a post on X saying he is ready for his “next chapter.” He wrote about his belief that small teams using AI can “move mountains” and redefine what is possible. However, his exit comes at a rocky time for the startup. Other founders like Igor Babuschkin, Kyle Kosic, and Christian Szegedy have already moved on. Another co-founder, Greg Yang, also stepped away recently to focus on his health while battling Lyme disease.
The company is currently facing heavy criticism from both the public and government regulators. People are angry because xAI’s chatbot, Grok, allowed users to create and share graphic, fake images of real people—including children—without their consent. These deepfakes have sparked investigations in several different countries.
Musk launched xAI with a team of 11 people to compete with giants like Google and OpenAI. At the time, the company’s website claimed its mission was to “understand the true nature of the universe.” Since then, Musk has shifted the company’s structure several times. He merged xAI with his social media platform, X, last March. Then, just last week, he announced that his rocket company, SpaceX, acquired xAI in a record-breaking deal. This merger valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, making it the largest deal of its kind ever.
Even with a massive valuation and a potential public stock offering (IPO) on the way, the original team is shrinking fast. While the company has plenty of funding, keeping its top talent on board is proving to be a major challenge for Musk.
