Elon Musk’s xAI Faces Turmoil Amid Co-Founder Exits and SpaceX Merger
Elon Musk's xAI is undergoing significant restructuring as multiple co-founders depart, including Jimmy Ba and Tony Wu. The exits follow a wave of earlier resignations, which Musk described as a necessary cleanup to enhance operational speed. Concurrently, SpaceX has absorbed xAI in an all-stock deal valuing the combined entity at $1.25 trillion, with SpaceX itself pegged at $1 trillion.
The merger coincides with mounting regulatory scrutiny. Authorities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia are investigating xAI's chatbot Grok for allegedly disseminating explicit deepfake images, including those of minors. The legal fallout threatens to complicate SpaceX's planned IPO, which targets a $1.5 trillion valuation and involves major underwriters like Bank of America and JPMorgan.
