Elon Musk Restarts Hiring at xAI After Departures

Elon Musk Revives Recruitment at xAI Amid Co-founder Exodus

Elon Musk recently announced that he is revisiting previously rejected applications at xAI, aiming to uncover talent that may have been overlooked. This initiative comes as the company faces organizational challenges similar to those encountered by Tesla in the past.

In a message posted on X, Musk expressed regret over the rejection of many promising applications over the years. He specified that he is working with Baris Akis, a member of the xAI recruitment team, to review the interview history and reach out to potentially interesting candidates.

Successive Departures at xAI

This recruitment effort occurs against a backdrop of significant departures among xAI's co-founders. Zihang Dai left the company earlier this week, and Guodong Zhang announced his intention to depart soon. These departures add to those of Toby Pohlen, Jimmy Ba, Tony Wu, and Greg Yang, all of whom have left xAI since January.

Launched in 2023 by Elon Musk and 11 other co-founders, xAI aimed to compete with giants like OpenAI and Google. Following the recent departures, only Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen remain among the initial co-founders.

Reorganization and Technical Challenges

Meanwhile, Musk revealed that he has undertaken a reorganization of xAI, terminating certain contracts, particularly within the AI research office, Macrohard, and the AI image and video generator, Grok Imagine. He acknowledged that xAI had not been built correctly from the outset and required a thorough reconstruction.

At the Abundance Summit, Musk also mentioned that Grok, xAI's flagship project, is lagging in its coding development. He attributed this delay at the event to a coding meeting aimed at surpassing competitors.

In early February, Musk announced that SpaceX, his space company, would acquire xAI. In March 2025, xAI acquired the social media platform X.