Yuhuai Tony Wu quits xAI; becomes fifth cofounder to leave Musk-led AI startup

xAI cofounder Yuhuai Tony Wu today announced his resignation from the AI startup company. The Elon Musk-owned startup was recently merged with SpaceX in a bid to fast-track the latter's public filing.

“I resigned from xAI today. This company - and the family we became - will stay with me forever. I will deeply miss the people, the warrooms, and all those battles we have fought together,” Wu wrote in a post on X.



This is a critical announcement, given that this is the fifth exit of a cofounder. xAI was founded in March 2023, with Musk joined by 12 founding members. In June 2024, Kyle Kosic quit the company, followed by Igor Babuschkin and Christian Szegedy in 2025, and Greg Yang and Wu this year.

Wu has not publicly attributed the exit to the merger with SpaceX. Meanwhile, he hinted at starting a “small team” of his own and thanked Musk as well.

“It's time for my next chapter. It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what's possible. Elon - thank you for believing in the mission and for the ride of a lifetime,” added Wu.

Aside from the startup’s merger with another Musk startup, recently, xAI opened a new engineering office in Washington, joining OpenAI in the Eastside AI corridor. The company now has offices in the Bay Area, Bellevue, and data centres in Memphis.