Elon Musk lost every xAI cofounder: Here's why?

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has lost all its remaining co-founders.

This marks an extraordinary exodus of all 11 original founding members in less than three months.

The last exit was of Ross Nordeen, who was described as a “Musk handler” for being a longtime Musk confidant, abruptly cut off from company systems last week.

He was the eighth co-founder to depart and the last non-Musk founder to leave the startup.

Earlier in March, Manuel Kroiss, who led xAI’s team, announced his departure.

The reason for massive departures points towards two likely explanations: loss of faith in management or a desire to cash out before a potential downturn.

Musk has also acknowledged some problems, citing that the xAI “was not built right first time around” and is now “being rebuilt from the foundations up” in a social media post.

He compared the current circumstances with the earlier days at Tesla when he followed the same path of ousting cofounders and taking control.

However, both companies exist in different landscapes. xAI’s business environment is far more competitive than Tesla’s early EV market.

Retaining talent in this industry is a crucial part of the success of any company, and the exit of the core foundation of xAI’s team indicated major trouble.