Elon Musk has initiated a new round of workforce reductions at his artificial intelligence firm xAI, leading to the departure of more co-founders due to concerns over the coding division’s performance, as reported by the Financial Times recently. Following the merger of xAI with SpaceX, Musk revamped the company’s leadership and brought in teams from SpaceX and Tesla for an audit. The report indicates that several employees, identified as underperforming, have been released from their positions.
Guodong Zhang, a co-founder who oversaw xAI’s Imagine team, left the company after Musk held him responsible for issues with the coding product and reassigned his key responsibilities, according to sources cited by the FT. Zhang confirmed his exit on Thursday. Another co-founder, Zihang Dai, also departed the previous week.
These departures leave only two out of the original twelve co-founders who joined Musk in launching xAI in March 2023 still at the firm. The FT noted complaints from staff about the disruptions affecting morale and hindering the company’s progress. Researchers are reportedly departing due to burnout from Musk’s demanding work environment or after receiving more attractive offers from competitors. Recruiters are now targeting candidates who were previously turned down by xAI, often with improved terms.
Musk addressed the situation in a post on X on Friday, apologizing to talented individuals who were not selected for interviews and pledging to engage with promising candidates. xAI recently brought on board Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg from the coding startup Cursor on Thursday.