xAI legal chief resigns due to work-life balance concerns

Robert Keele, the head of legal at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI, stepped down after just over a year in the role, due to philosophical differences with the founder. He expressed his desire to spend more time with his two young children, whom he didn't see due to his work.

His departure adds to a growing list of executive turnover across Musk's businesses.

In a post on X and LinkedIn, Keele said, "The job was a dream, the team, incredible. Working with Elon on this tech, at this time, was the adventure of a lifetime. Although there's daylight between our worldviews, his vision, commitment, and smarts blew me away on the daily."



He added he couldn't keep "riding two horses at once — the family and the job".

Keele joined xAI in May 2024 as the company's first head of legal, just before the AI startup raised $6 billion in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, which valued the company at $24 billion. During his tenure, xAI acquired Musk's social media platform X in March 2025 in a deal that valued the combined entity at $113 billion.

Keele's exit comes after high-level departures from Musk's companies. In July, X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down after just over two years in the role, and Tesla has lost at least four of Musk's direct reports since June