Two More Co-Founders of xAI's Founding Team Resign

xAI co-founders Tony Wu and Jimmy Ba resigned on 10th February, leaving the company they started with Elon Musk less than three years ago. The departures mean six of xAI's 12 original co-founders have now left the company. Wu announced his exit on 9th February in a post on X, followed by Ba the next day, who said it was his last day at the firm (Bloomberg, 2026). Neither detailed their reasons for leaving or outlined next plans, though both thanked Musk in their posts.

The Financial Times reported that Ba's resignation followed internal tensions over demands to improve xAI's AI model performance as Musk pushes to catch up with rivals including OpenAI and Anthropic (Reuters, 2026). Ba did not respond to requests for comment on the report. 

Musk confirmed the reorganization in a recent meeting, telling employees that some departures were voluntary while others were asked to leave (India Today, 2026). He said the company is restructuring its teams following the co-founder exits and the SpaceX merger. The resignations followed a wave of staff departures that began after the SpaceX acquisition was announced.

Musk has publicly stated xAI needs to accelerate model development to compete with the pace of innovation at OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which have released multiple significant model updates over the past year.