Another founding executive has left Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, amid a raft of departures and reports of tensions.
An exodus has been underway at Musk’s challenger to OpenAI, with co-founder and research and safety lead Jimmy Ba the latest to walk out the door, he confirmed in a post on X.
Ba becomes the sixth of 12 founders to leave the operation, along with half a dozen researchers, according to The Financial Times.
It comes as the world’s richest man merges the company that owns the social media platform X with his aerospace operation, SpaceX, creating the world’s largest private firm, but adding to the turmoil.
Reporting on the deal has pegged xAI’s value at $250 billion, and if completed, would increase the combined group’s total value to around $1.5 trillion.
“Grateful to have helped cofound at the start,” Ba said in a post on X. “And enormous thanks to @elonmusk for bringing us together on this incredible journey. So proud of what the xAI team has done and will continue to stay close as a friend of the team. Thank you all for the grind together. The people and camaraderie are the real treasures at this place.
“It’s time to recalibrate my gradient on the big picture,” he added. “2026 is gonna be insane and likely the busiest (and most consequential) year for the future of our species.”
His colleague, Tony Wu, also announced his departure on Tuesday, saying in a statement of his own, “I resigned from xAI today. This company—and the family we became—will stay with me forever. I will deeply miss the people, the warrooms, and all those battles we have fought together.”
He added, “Thank you to the entire xAI family. Onward. And to Elon @elonmusk—thank you for believing in the mission and for the ride of a lifetime.”
Founders Kyle Kosic, Igor Babuschkin, Christian Szegedy, and Greg Yang have already left.
Citing a source, the FT reported that Musk held a call with staff on Tuesday to discuss changes to xAI’s leadership, which now looks significantly different from its structure at the company’s inception in 2023.
The outlet also reports, again via sources, that internal tensions have grown, with staff frustrated with leadership for overpromising to Musk, who has made significant demands on those below him.
Two more sources said Musk has grown frustrated and has been reviewing leadership and potential restructuring.
Meanwhile, the products xAI has created have drawn public criticism on multiple occasions.
The company’s lighting rod, Grok, sparked outrage in July when it began spouting antisemitic, pro-Adolf Hitler messaging.
The company responded, saying it was “actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.”
Earlier this year, the bot was again ensnared in a scandal, after it made indecent images of real people without their consent. Users provided Grok with prompts, asking it to reimagine images of people, sometimes young girls, in states of undress, although not nude.
The Daily Beast has contacted xAI for comment.
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