Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has lost another senior leader as Chief Financial Officer Mike Liberatore exited after only a few months on the job. Liberatore, a former Airbnb executive, joined xAI in April but left in July, according to The Wall Street Journal. His short tenure included helping lead fundraising efforts and advancing plans for a major data center expansion in the Memphis area.
The reasons behind Liberatore’s abrupt departure remain unclear, and Musk has not publicly addressed the move. His exit comes as xAI has faced a string of senior-level resignations, raising questions about stability within the fast-growing firm.
In July, Linda Yaccarino stepped down as CEO of Musk’s social media platform X shortly after the company disabled text responses from its Grok AI chatbot, which had made disturbing references to “MechaHitler” and Nazi ideology. While insiders insisted her departure was unrelated, the timing added to growing leadership concerns across Musk’s ventures.
Other recent exits at xAI include General Counsel Robert Keele, who left to spend more time with his family while noting “daylight between our worldviews” with Musk, and co-founder Igor Babushkin, who departed to launch an AI safety-focused investment firm. Raghu Rao, another company lawyer, also left recently.
Despite these setbacks, xAI remains a major player in the AI race. Following its merger with X, the company was valued at $80 billion, compared to $33 billion for X, cementing xAI as a direct competitor to Sam Altman’s OpenAI and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta. Still, the wave of high-profile resignations underscores the challenges Musk faces in retaining top talent while scaling his AI vision.
