Sources: Elon Musk pushed out two more xAI co-founders after getting frustrated with xAI's coding product progress and brought in “fixers” from SpaceX and Tesla
Tesla and SpaceX managers sent in to review work as billionaire's start-up struggles to keep pace with rivals
Financial Times
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Discussion
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@davelee.me
Dave Lee
on bluesky
Gotta wonder if much of SpaceX's success comes from the fact its talent had very few alternative companies to work for [embedded post]
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@metacurity.com
Cynthia Brumfield
on bluesky
Tee hee — “Musk has relentlessly pushed the heavily loss-making AI start-up to catch up with rivals, but so far its Grok chatbot and coding product have failed to gain traction with paying individual users or businesses.” [embedded post]
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@elonmusk
Elon Musk
on x
@beffjezos xAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up. Same thing happened with Tesla.
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@milichab
Andrew Milich
on x
I'm joining @SpaceX and @xai with @JasonBud. X is the company realizing science fiction - reusable rockets, humanoid robots, data centers in space, and more. Almost 10 years ago, I joined SpaceX as an intern on Dragon 2 crew displays. This was in the era of the first rocket [imag…
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@beffjezos
@beffjezos
on x
If I were not already building Extropic, I would have 100% joined @xai The lab with the most e/acc and Kardashev-pilled mission of all Definitely a huge opportunity for great talent to rise to the occasion here
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@benjamindekr
Benjamin De Kraker
on x
Here is an xAI story. When I was first hired (low level) by xAI, I was extremely excited. I greatly admired Elon and what Grok could be. I have a pretty cool AI following here on X. Some big names see my stuff, including Elon himself (at the time). Lex, Beff, Andreessen, Arav…
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@elonmusk
Elon Musk
on x
Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview @xAI. My apologies. @BarisAkis and I are going through the company interview history and reaching back out to promising candidates.
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@beffjezos
@beffjezos
on x
Fractional Cursor acquisition. xAI taking the right steps
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@elonmusk
Elon Musk
on x
Welcome! Orbital space centers and mass drivers on the Moon will be incredible.
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@shaunmmaguire
Shaun Maguire
on x
Absolutely massive hires for @SpaceX and @xai @milichab and @JasonBud are exceptionally talented young builders I can't wait to see what they'll do with +100x resources Join them!
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@jasonbud
Jason Ginsberg
on x
I'm proud to be joining SpaceX and xAI with @milichab It has become clear that software is changing fundamentally. More and more, people can shape the tools they use directly, and the ceiling of what can be built keeps rising. What makes xAI special is the scale of its
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@a4xrbj1
Andrea Basso
on bluesky
Zihang Dai left xAI earlier this week, according to people familiar with the matter. His xAI badge has vanished from his X profile. — Meanwhile, Guodong Zhang has told people he plans to leave in the coming days, insiders said. His X profile still has an xAI badge. — /1
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@guodzh
Guodong Zhang
on x
Last day at xAI. Wild journey past three years but excited about next chapter. Thanks all for the love and support yesterday. So many friends made along the way and I will miss you all!
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@dannydailynote
@dannydailynote
on x
@Cointelegraph xAI is fighting for talent with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind. In this market, culture + stability matter. Every layoff sends a signal to top researchers: maybe not the safest place to build long-term. Short-term cost cuts... but possibly hurting the talen…
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@buccocapital
@buccocapital
on x
Are there people left to cut? Is it just Nikita now?
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@imhaotian
Haotian Liu
on x
I left xAI earlier this week. It was a difficult decision. The past two years have been an intense, fun, and deeply rewarding journey, and I accomplished things I could not have imagined two years ago. Thank you @elonmusk for the opportunity and for everything I learned at xAI.
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@sivil_taram
Qian Liu
on x
goodbye, my captains 👋
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@himanshustwts
Himanshu
on x
This resignation might be truly frustrating for xAI. Zhang was: - an xAI cofounder (only two left now) - leading Grok Code + Grok Imagine - reporting directly to Elon - one of the core ML researchers behind Grok BIG! [image]
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@shaneguml
Shane Gu
on x
End of xAI truly
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@marandefi
DefiMaran
on x
@sivil_taram I saw more than four people leave xAI this morning
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@niedermeyer.online
E.W. Niedermeyer
on bluesky
looks like the actual talent is out at xAI, and Musk is “parachuting in ‘fixers’ from SpaceX and Tesla to audit the start-up” — all just a little bit of history repeating... www.ft.com/content/e5fb...
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@ibd_ecarson
Ed Carson
on x
Elon Musk basically confirming that the SpaceX deal was an xAI bailout (after xAI bailed out Twitter/X). How else could you explain xAI's $250 billion valuation in the SpaceX deal when the startup - which is bleeding cash w/o much revenue - was “not built right.”
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@realjimchanos
James Chanos
on x
Reminder that @SpaceX investors were diluted 20% to “buy” xAI. $TSLA
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@flintcasey
Casey Flint
on x
I don't know why he tweeted this - it makes him look extremely desperate for talent. “I am lowering our bar”
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@fredlambert
Fred Lambert
on x
2018: Musk quits OpenAI, citing conflict of interest with Tesla's own AI effort. 2019: Musk claims Tesla is now an AI company 2020-2022: Tesla misses every single autonomy timeline set by Musk 2022: Musk sells billions worth of Tesla shares to acquire Twitter - reducing his
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@chafkin
Max Chafkin
on x
obviously long history of musk doing this, but also...this is a company that has already raised and burned through billions if not tens of billions of dollars and is attempting to claim a significant percentage of Musk's less troubled rocket company [image]
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@ctrlaltdwayne
Dwayne
on x
Imagine you're an xAI engineer. You worked 80 hour weeks for a year. You helped build Grok. And then one morning you open Twitter and your CEO has told the entire world that everything you built was wrong and needs to be redone from scratch. And he thinks this makes him look like…
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@benjamindekr
Benjamin De Kraker
on x
I strongly suspect that many of the foundational problems at xAI were kept hidden from Elon until very recently. There were layers to the iceberg, and he (unfortunately) only saw the parts above water. Those of us who were further down saw the cracks but were told to shut up.
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@ethanhe_42
Ethan He
on x
Personal story: I applied to xAI in 2023 when it was founded and got rejected after an interview round. I went back to honing my skills. In 2025, xAI reached out to me, and I was fortunate to get an offer. Now, 8 months in, I can confidently say: this is the best place to do
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@twanzio
@twanzio
on bluesky
“Not nearly racist or misogynist enough so we gotta start from scratch” [embedded post]
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@caseynewton
Casey Newton
on bluesky
Prediction: it will not be built right the second time around, either [embedded post]
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@danielmconnolly
@danielmconnolly
on bluesky
Narrator: It will not be built right this time either. Please pay at the pump. Thank you.
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@mitch_troy
Mitchell Troyanovsky
on x
An insane heist by xAI
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@barisakis
Baris Akis
on x
Thrilled to welcome @milichab and @JasonBud to build what's possible at XAI + SpaceX The AI products that truly transforms the world and delivers abundance for humanity won't look like today's tools. It demands first-principles rethinking, grand ambition, vastly more training
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@karlbode.com
Karl Bode
on bluesky
I am dedicated to living long enough to watch his entire empire collapse
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@xdnibor
Robin
on x
Elon does this relatively often. And it works. Not too long ago, he fired almost the entire Supercharger team. Now it's thriving like never before. In 2018 he fired a lot of the managers and staff from the Starlink team.
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@brianroemmele
Brian Roemmele
on x
This is bold leadership. It is the only way to build things right. I absolutely applaud this approach and the guts it takes do innovate.
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@basedjensen
@basedjensen
on x
Look I may be biased but come on big e saying this is extremely insulting to the brilliant team who was with you. Saying it was not built right the first time says a lot about your leadership than anything else
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@benjamindekr
Benjamin De Kraker
on x
Some of us tried to alert you that there were problems, chief.
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@electricfutures
@electricfutures
on x
Raises $20B, including $2B from Tesla despite shareholders objecting, values xAI at 25% of profitable space company in merger, then admits it was actually worthless and he diluted SpaceX investors by 20% to save his cash-burning CSAM machine which needs to be entirely rebuilt
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@eastlondondev
Andrew Jefferson
on x
I interviewed at xAI, 3 of my 4 interviews were leet coding no AI allowed. No check whatsoever of my ability to use AI as an engineer. Compare with Replit where I've just been contracting - they're creating new kinds of interviews where candidates get access to Claude code and
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@sporadica
@sporadica
on x
every single time i hear a former xAI employee speak, it's just more of the same bullshit i've also watched accounts get banned on this site for criticizing Elon and xAI so, excuse me for not believing in mein fuhrer Musk anymore. dude is a baby. get ya shit right Elon, then