Elon Musk’s xAI Loses Another Founding Member As Tony Wu Exits: ‘Ride Of A Lifetime’

Tony Wu, one of the original founders of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI, has stepped down from the company, marking another high-profile exit from the startup less than three years after it was launched. Tony Wu announced his resignation in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying he had formally left xAI and was preparing for a new phase in his career.

‘More Than Just A Workplace’ Reflecting on his time at the company, he described xAI as more than just a workplace, calling it a “family” forged through intense collaboration. He said he would miss the people, the late-night strategy rooms and the battles fought together while building the firm. While Tony Wu did not reveal his next professional move, he hinted at plans aligned

with the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence.

He wrote that the current moment presents vast opportunities, suggesting that small, focused teams empowered by advanced AI tools can achieve outsized impact and redefine what is possible. Tony Wu also expressed gratitude to the broader xAI team and to Elon Musk, thanking the Tesla and SpaceX chief for backing the company’s mission and offering what he called “the ride of a lifetime”.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Tony Wu previously worked at Google and was among the roughly dozen founding members who launched xAI alongside Elon Musk in 2023.

A Series Of Departures At xAI
Tony Wu’s departure adds to a growing list of early exits from the company. Over the past year, co-founders Christian Szegedy, Igor Babuschkin and Greg Yang have also moved away from their roles, while Kyle Kosic left in 2024.

This comes at a time of significant structural change for xAI. Bloomberg recently reported that the AI firm has merged with SpaceX in a deal valuing the combined entity at $1.25 trillion. The merger is expected to provide financial relief as xAI continues to pour resources into data centres, advanced chips and talent in its push to scale up AI development. Announcing the merger earlier, Elon Musk said the newly combined company would aim to “extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”