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Elon Musk\u2019s newly rebranded SpaceXAI is reportedly losing top talent, with more than 50 researchers and engineers departing since February, according to The Information. The exits include key leaders across coding, world models, and Grok voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rivals like Meta and Thinking Machine Labs are reportedly scooping up former staff, with the company\u2019s core pre-training team dwindling to just a handful of people. Since February, at least 11 xAI employees have defected to Meta, according to The Information\u2019s report. At least seven have left to join Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machine Labs.\u00a0TechCrunch has previously reported on 11 of the xAI departures<\/a> announced directly after the merger, including two co-founders<\/a>.<\/p>\n SpaceX acquired xAI<\/a> \u2014 two companies owned by Musk \u2014 in February and has since installed new leadership at the company. Musk renamed the combined company SpaceXAI earlier this month.<\/p>\n The pre-training departures, which followed the exit of team lead Juntang Zhuang, have particularly concerned employees and people close to SpaceXAI, per The Information. Pre-training is the first step to building new AI models, and many have questioned whether the company is still committed to developing leading models.\u00a0<\/p>\n The report also found that Musk\u2019s culture of extreme work led some staff to leave \u2014 something Musk employees across his companies, including Tesla, have complained about. A source who spoke to The Information said Musk set unrealistic deadlines for training models, which led to cutting corners on Grok.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, several of the exits could have been driven by a desire to cash out. <\/p>\n SpaceX regularly offers tenders so employees can sell vested shares privately. Others might simply feel confident that their equity is close to liquidity given the company\u2019s blockbuster IPO expectations. Once employees see the financial upside light at the end of the tunnel, they\u2019re less likely to work at a company that puts undue pressure on them and may not be building the leading models they want to work on.<\/p>\n TechCrunch has reached out to SpaceX for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n