Elon Musk’s last xAI co-founders exit as company undergoes overhaul

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI has reportedly lost its final remaining co-founders, marking a complete turnover of its original leadership team.

According to reports, co-founders Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen have now exited the company.

Their departures follow an earlier wave that had already seen most of the startup’s 11 original co-founders leave.

Kroiss, who led xAI’s pretraining team, reportedly informed colleagues of his decision earlier this month, while Nordeen — described as a close operational aide to Musk — left shortly afterward.

Nordeen previously worked at Tesla and played a role in restructuring efforts at Twitter after Musk’s 2022 acquisition.

The exits come amid a broader reset at xAI. Musk recently acknowledged that the company “was not built right [the] first time around” and is now being “rebuilt from the foundations up.”

As part of that restructuring, xAI has been brought under the umbrella of SpaceX, alongside Musk’s social platform X.

The consolidation reflects a strategy to align Musk’s AI, aerospace, and social media ventures more closely — particularly as SpaceX is reportedly exploring a future public offering.

The departure of all founding members raises fresh questions about leadership stability at xAI, even as Musk pushes forward with ambitions to compete in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence sector.