With co-founders continuing to leave xAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) corporations founded by Elon Musk, only three of the 12 founding members, including Musk, are reportedly left at the company after about three years.
On the 12th (local time), Business Insider, citing sources, reported that xAI co-founder Dai Zhi Hang recently left the company and that another co-founder, Zhang Guodong, is set to resign within days.
In particular, co-founder Zhang oversaw xAI's core projects, the "Grok code" and "Grok Imagine," and was known as a key figure who reported directly to Musk.
The departures of co-founders continued this year as well. Toby Fallon, Jimmy Ba, Wu Yuhui (American name Tony Wu), and Greg Yang have already reportedly left the company.
As a result, only two of those who founded the company with Musk, Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen, remain at xAI.
The industry is paying attention to the fact that key personnel have been leaving around the announcement of the merger between xAI and Musk's space corporations SpaceX. Some say cultural clashes arising during the integration of the two organizations could be behind the talent outflow.
Regarding the departures, Musk noted that the talent needed at the early stage differs from that needed during growth, adding that there are "almost no departures I regret."
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that a transaction converting the $2 billion Tesla previously invested in xAI into SpaceX equity has received approval from U.S. authorities. According to documents filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it is part of a restructuring of the equity structure carried out after the xAI–SpaceX merger.
Tesla's SpaceX equity is reportedly just under 1%.