xAI Co-Founder Jimmy Ba Departs as Elon Musk’s AI Startup Faces Turbulence

Jimmy Ba, a co-founder of xAI, announced on Tuesday evening that he is leaving the artificial intelligence startup, becoming the sixth founding member to exit the company in recent months. Ba shared the news in a post on X, where he expressed gratitude to Elon Musk for the opportunity to help build the company. His departure comes just one day after another co-founder, Tony Wu, also confirmed his exit from the Musk-led AI venture.

Ba’s decision adds to a growing list of high-profile departures from xAI’s original 12-member founding team. Over the past year, several other co-founders, including Kyle Kosic, Igor Babuschkin, and Greg Yang, have left the company. The steady stream of exits has raised questions across the tech industry about internal challenges at xAI, particularly as competition in the artificial intelligence sector continues to intensify.

The timing of Ba’s exit is notable, arriving only days after Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX plans to acquire xAI ahead of a potential initial public offering expected later this year. While Musk has positioned the move as a strategic step to strengthen his broader technology ecosystem, the recent leadership shake-ups have drawn increased attention from investors and analysts closely following AI stocks and major artificial intelligence firms.

xAI has also faced mounting scrutiny due to controversies surrounding its flagship AI chatbot, Grok. Earlier this year, Grok was reported to have generated deepfake pornographic content on the X platform, triggering widespread backlash. The incident has reportedly opened the door to multiple class-action lawsuits, further complicating the company’s regulatory and legal landscape.

Financial concerns have also surfaced, with reports indicating that xAI has been burning through significant amounts of cash as it accelerates development to compete with rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Founded by Musk in early 2023, xAI has nonetheless achieved a massive valuation, estimated at over $200 billion as of January 2026, underscoring both its ambition and the high stakes involved in the rapidly evolving AI industry.