Jimmy Ba, one of the original cofounders of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI, announced Tuesday that he is stepping away from the company — becoming the second high-level executive to leave in less than 48 hours.
Ba confirmed his departure in a post on X, writing, “It’s time to recalibrate my gradient on the big picture. 2026 is gonna be insane and likely the busiest (and most consequential) year for the future of our species.” The statement offered no specific details about why he chose to leave.
His exit follows the Monday departure of fellow cofounder Tony Wu, raising new concerns about instability inside the leadership ranks of the fast-growing AI startup.
Ba previously reported directly to Elon Musk and played a major operational role within xAI. According to individuals familiar with internal restructuring, many of his responsibilities were redistributed late last year. Portions of his oversight were transferred to Wu and another cofounder, Guodong Zhang. Earlier organizational charts also show Ba supervising more than 1,000 AI tutors — a role that shifted to Diego Pasini in September.
Wu’s exit came swiftly, with his Slack account reportedly deactivated shortly before his resignation announcement. Prior to leaving, some of Wu’s responsibilities were reassigned to Zhang, signaling ongoing internal reshuffling.
Musk launched xAI in 2023 with a founding team of 12. With Ba and Wu’s departures, six original founders have now left the company — five of them within the past year.
Ba brings strong academic credentials. He serves as an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, where he earned his Ph.D. under Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern artificial intelligence.
xAI has drawn attention for its controversial projects. The company positioned itself as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and developed the Grok chatbot, which has faced backlash for problematic outputs, including offensive content and, at one point, nonconsensual AI-generated images. The company later acknowledged “lapses in safeguards” and said corrective measures were underway.
Last week, Musk announced plans to merge xAI with SpaceX as the aerospace company prepares for a potential IPO reportedly valued at up to $1.5 trillion.
The back-to-back executive departures now add fresh uncertainty to the future direction of Musk’s ambitious AI operation.
