Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI has now seen the exit of its last remaining co-founder, Ross Nordeen, marking the complete departure of the original team formed in 2023, reports Business Insider. Nordeen’s exit comes just days after the 10th co-founder, Manuel Kroiss, left, following a broader wave of departures over recent months.
Notably, the company began with 12 co-founders, but all have now stepped away, leaving Elon Musk as the only remaining figure from the original founding lineup. The primary reason behind these recent departures appears to be ongoing restructuring and internal changes, particularly following xAI’s merger with SpaceX.
The most recent departures, including Nordeen and Kroiss, are part of a broader pattern of staff leaving that accelerated in early 2026. Several key technical figures involved in model development, training systems, and core infrastructure reportedly left during this period. Importantly, these exits did not occur in isolation but rather along with significant internal restructuring, suggesting that organizational changes played a central role in reshaping the company’s leadership structure.
A major factor linked to the departures has been xAI’s evolving relationship with Musk’s broader corporate ecosystem. Following its merger with SpaceX, the company reportedly underwent a structural realignment that integrated parts of its operations into a larger group of Musk-led ventures. This transition appears to have changed reporting lines, team responsibilities, and overall operational independence. And for early leadership members, such changes may have represented a fundamental shift away from the startup-style structure in which xAI was originally formed.
The timing becomes especially critical as xAI has been working under intense competitive and regulatory pressure in the AI sector. The company has been developing its own AI systems, including its Grok chatbot and related tools, in an effort to compete with established players in the generative AI space. In recent times, xAI has also faced criticism and controversies around its AI systems, including concerns over chatbot responses, safety controls, and the way its models handle sensitive and political topics.
Meanwhile, just a few weeks back, Elon Musk publicly responded to the wave of departures at xAI by framing them as part of a necessary rebuilding process rather than isolated resignations. According to his remarks shared during the ongoing restructuring phase, Musk acknowledged that the company’s early structure was flawed and not designed properly for long-term scaling, adding that xAI is now being ‘reworked from the ground up’ to improve efficiency and execution. He also compared the situation to earlier challenges at Tesla, suggesting that rapid-growth companies often require major internal resets before stabilizing.
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