Over 50 employees left Musk's SpaceXAI since merger
15 May 2026

Elon Musk's newly rebranded venture, SpaceXAI, is witnessing an exodus of top talent.

Since February, over 50 researchers and engineers have left the company, according to The Information.

The departures include key leaders in coding, world models, and Grok voice.

Competitors such as Meta and Thinking Machine Labs are reportedly hiring these former employees.

At least 11 xAI employees have joined Meta
Fact

The mass exodus has left SpaceXAI's core pre-training team with only a handful of members. Since February, at least 11 xAI employees have joined Meta. Seven others have moved to Thinking Machine Labs, led by Mira Murati.

Concerns about commitment to developing leading AI models
Company transition

In February, SpaceX acquired xAI, a company owned by Musk. Since then, new leadership has been appointed at the company.

Earlier this month, Musk rebranded the merged entity as SpaceXAI.

The pre-training departures have raised concerns among employees and those close to SpaceXAI about the company's commitment to developing leading AI models.

Musk's 'extreme work' culture blamed for departures
Work environment

Musk's "extreme work" culture has also been blamed for some of the departures.

A source told The Information that Musk set unrealistic deadlines for training models, which led to cutting corners on Grok.

Despite this, some employees may have left due to a desire to cash out their equity stakes in the company amid its anticipated IPO.