Elon Musk's SpaceXAI Continues to See Talent Exodus After Merger

Elon Musk's newly named SpaceXAI is experiencing a serious talent exodus following its merger. More than 50 researchers and engineers have left the company since February, including key leaders in code, world models, and Grok voice.

Rival companies Meta and Thinking Machines Lab are quickly absorbing the departed talent. According to reports, at least 11 xAI employees moved to Meta, and at least 7 moved to Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab, leaving the core pre-training team with only a handful of people remaining.

The departures gained momentum after SpaceX acquired xAI in February, followed by a new management team taking over. Musk renamed the merged entity SpaceXAI earlier this month.

The pre-training team's exodus has raised particular concern following the departure of team lead Juntang Zhuang. Pre-training is the first step in building new AI models, and both insiders and outsiders are now questioning whether the company remains focused on developing a frontier model.

Cultural factors also appear to have contributed to the departures. An extreme work culture and unrealistic training schedules have been cited, and internal sources reported that this led to forced cutbacks and compromises during Grok's development.

However, some departures may simply be for cashing out purposes. SpaceX regularly offers tender offers that let employees privately sell vested shares, and growing expectations of an IPO have increased the likelihood of employees liquidating their equity.