Elon Musk fires more xAI co-founders: report

Elon Musk has ordered a fresh round of job cuts at his artificial intelligence company xAI, with more co-founders pushed out amid frustration over the performance of its coding division, the Financial Times recently reported.

Musk overhauled xAI's leadership last month following its merger with SpaceX, sending in teams from SpaceX and Tesla to conduct an audit. Several employees deemed to be underperforming have been let go, according to the report.

Co-founder Guodong Zhang, who led xAI's Imagine team, has left after Musk blamed him for problems with the coding product and stripped him of his main duties, sources told the FT. He confirmed his departure on X on Thursday. Another co-founder, Zihang Dai, also left earlier last week.

The exits mean only two of the twelve co-founders who helped Musk launch xAI in March 2023 remain at the company.

Staff have complained that the upheaval is hurting morale and holding the company back, the FT said. Researchers are leaving due to burnout from Musk's "extremely hardcore" work expectations or after receiving better offers from rivals. Recruiters have been reaching out to candidates previously rejected by xAI, often with improved terms.

Musk acknowledged the issue in an X post on Friday, apologising to talented people who were declined interviews and promising to reconnect with promising candidates. xAI hired Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg from coding startup Cursor on Thursday.