Another one of Elon Musk’s top executives has made a break for it.
Mike Liberatore, the chief financial officer of Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI, left the company in July—just three months after he started, the Wall Street Journal reported.
His exit marks the fourth high-profile departure from xAI this summer, though his reasons remain unclear. During his brief tenure, Liberatore helped coordinate a $5 billion debt sale through Morgan Stanley and led expansion efforts in the Memphis area.
Before xAI, Liberatore spent eight years climbing the ranks at Airbnb and previously held senior finance roles at eBay, PayPal, and SquareTrade. On LinkedIn, he describes himself as a “strategic finance business partner with tireless work ethic,” who’s “comfortable going from zero to $10B+.”
Early August, xAI’s general counsel Robert Keele announced he, too, was stepping down to spend more time with his two young children.
“Working with Elon on this tech, at this time, was the adventure of a lifetime,” Keele wrote on LinkedIn last month. “Although there’s daylight between our worldviews, his vision, commitment, and smarts blew me away on the daily.”
Days later, Igor Babuschkin—a co-founder of xAI—announced he was leaving to launch his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures, focused on AI safety.
Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023. I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed.Building…
— Igor Babuschkin (@ibab) August 13, 2025
“I learned 2 priceless lessons from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency,” Babuschkin wrote in a lengthy post on X, to which Musk replied: “Thanks for helping build xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.”
Thanks for helping build @xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2025
Raghu Rao, a senior lawyer who oversaw commercial legal affairs for xAI, also quietly exited from the company this summer, according to the Journal.
The turmoil wasn’t limited to xAI. Linda Yaccarino, the embattled CEO of Musk’s X, stepped down in July following a brief tenure marked by controversies—including a spree of antisemitic comments by X’s AI chatbot Grok that same week.
“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” she wrote at the time.
After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏. When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me…
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 9, 2025
“I’m immensely grateful to [Musk] for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.”
Musk’s public response was characteristically chilly: “Thank you for your contributions.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to X and Liberatore for comment.
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