Elon Musk’s empire is losing senior talent, with veterans and new hires bailing over punishing hours, sudden pivots, and his MAGA-flavored politics, amid an ongoing war with OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
The pace reflects Musk’s all-consuming race to catch rivals in AI after ChatGPT upended Silicon Valley’s pecking order, insiders told the Financial Times.
Several current and former staff said the rivalry with Altman has intensified the grind, as Musk presses teams to out-ship and out-hype the competition across products he controls.
“Elon’s got a chip on his shoulder from ChatGPT and is spending every waking moment trying to put Sam out of business,” said one recent top departee.
Last week, xAI accused Altman’s company of “plundering and misappropriating” its code and data center secrets by stealing engineers in a new lawsuit. OpenAI called the move “the latest chapter in Musk’s ongoing harassment.”
It’s just latest lawsuit Musk and xAI have filed against OpenAI over the past few years as Altman and Musk have feuded.
While the departures from Musk businesses include Tesla’s U.S. sales brass, battery/power-train leads, the CIO, and linchpins from the Optimus robotics and AI teams, at xAI—freshly fused into X—turnover has reportedly been even more frenetic, the FT reported.
The newspaper noted that the AI company’s CFO and general counsel exited within weeks of each other.
The churn at Tesla is said to have accelerated after mass layoffs and Musk’s pivot away from a low-cost EV toward robotaxis and humanoid bots—moves that rattled staff who’d signed on to cut emissions, not chase anime avatars.
“The one constant in Elon’s world is how quickly he burns through deputies,” said one adviser quoted by the newpaper.
Some exits have arrived with a very Muskian flourish. Ex-xAI CFO Mike Liberatore left after roughly three months. “102 days—7 days per week in the office; 120+ hours per week; I love working hard,” he wrote on LinkedIn—before decamping to OpenAI.
Others had more personal reasons, which also spoke to the intensity of working for Musk, 54. “I love my two toddlers and I don’t get to see them enough,” admitted Robert Keele, xAI’s departing general counsel, last month.
The FT report also detailed a souring mood over Musk’s politics—his embrace of President Donald Trump and amplification of far-right provocateurs—which staff said is eroding morale and recruiting efforts.
That climate has collided with unfortunate tech stumbles. In July, xAI scrubbed antisemitic outputs from its chatbot Grok after it praised Hitler.
And when X pushed “companion” features, including a hyper-sexualized anime bot called Ani, critics warned about teen access.
Leadership turbulence has even spilled into the C-suite. X CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned in July, months after Musk combined xAI and X in an all-stock deal.
Inside Tesla, the attrition map extends to nearly every area.
Longtime energy and drive-unit chief Drew Baglino is out; supercharger lead Rebecca Tinucci landed at Uber after Musk axed the charging team; Optimus leaders Milan Kovac and Ashish Kumar have left; and Musk’s famed “firefighter,” sales chief Omead Afshar, was dismissed amid sliding deliveries.
However, the board insists the talent pipeline is fine. Tesla chair Robyn Denholm said the company develops talent well and remains a magnet for top recruits, the FT reported.
Musk, Tesla, and xAI declined to comment to the FT.
The Daily Beast has also asked them for comment on the FT report.
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