Senior executive at Elon Musk's X leaves company without notice

The tech billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X’s (formerly Twitter) director of engineering Haofei Wang has abruptly left the company.

Wang joined X in July 2023 and played a crucial role in the company's leadership, often serving as a mediator between Musk and the engineering team.

Recently, Wang was viewed internally as the de facto head of engineering and product at X, particularly as Musk shifted his focus towards his artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI and the US government’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk's attention and leadership at X have also become increasingly divided since he began campaigning for President Donald Trump. That said, the reason behind Wang's sudden departure is unclear.

Notably, X recently appointed new engineering leaders, Mike Dalton and Uday Ruddaraju, who joined in January.

Both executives previously served technical lead roles at Robinhood and are also associated with xAI, which has become increasingly intertwined with X over the past year.

Despite the challenges, X's business has been gaining momentum, due to the growing profile of xAI and Musk's rising political influence.

The company also reportedly secured a $44 billion valuation from investors, matching the price Musk paid for acquiring Twitter in 2022.