All Five Chinese Co-Founders Depart xAI Amid Broader Exodus

All five Chinese co-founders of xAI have departed the company, leaving only three of the original twelve founding members. This development follows reports earlier this week of Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang's exits, adding to the prior departures of three other Chinese co-founders.

Guodong Zhang, who reported directly to Elon Musk, was responsible for two key xAI initiatives: Grok Code and Grok Imagine. His responsibilities had expanded earlier this year, shortly before Tony Wu also left the company. The recent departures of Zhang and Dai follow those of Tony Wu and Jimmy Ba last month. Greg Yang had previously transitioned to an advisory role due to health reasons and later left.

Abstract neural network with some glowing, connected nodes and some dark, disconnected nodes.

Among the 11 individuals who co-founded xAI with Musk in 2023, only Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen now remain. The departures occur as xAI integrates with SpaceX and aims for a potential trillion-dollar IPO valuation.

Guodong Zhang, a University of Toronto Ph.D., oversaw the strategic products Grok Code, an AI code agent, and Grok Imagine, for image and video generation. Earlier this year, before his partner Tony Wu, who co-led core AI model development, left, Zhang had taken on increased responsibilities, including both pre-training and post-training efforts. Zhang earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2023, specializing in machine learning and artificial intelligence. His doctoral research on noisy quadratic models and neural network training dynamics has been utilized by industrial laboratories such as Anthropic, DeepMind, and OpenAI for their model development. Before joining xAI as a co-founder in 2023, he interned at Microsoft Research, Google Brain, and DeepMind, and served as a research scientist at DeepMind.

A professional leather briefcase on an empty, polished desk in a modern office, symbolizing departure.

Founding Members Departures

xAI was quietly registered by Musk in Nevada in March 2023, with its official launch announced on July 12. The company's stated vision was to "understand the true nature of the universe." The initial roster of 12 founding members included top scientists recruited from Google, DeepMind, OpenAI, and Microsoft Research, with five of them being Chinese individuals.

Five professional individuals walking away down a modern corporate corridor, symbolizing the departing co-founders.

The departing Chinese co-founders include:

• Greg Yang: A former top researcher at Microsoft Research, Yang transitioned to an advisory role starting January 2025 due to Lyme disease, and subsequently left the company.

• Tony Wu: A former Google research scientist and Stanford postdoctoral fellow who interned at DeepMind and OpenAI. He and Guodong Zhang were jointly responsible for xAI's core model development. Wu left in February 2026, stating, "Thank you to the entire xAI family, thank you Elon for believing in this mission, and for this unforgettable journey of a lifetime."

• Jimmy Ba: An Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a former student of Geoffrey Hinton. Ba led significant operational work at xAI. He departed in February 2026, writing, "It's time to recalibrate my gradient for the big picture. 2026 will be a crazy year, likely the busiest and most critical year for humanity's future."

• Zihang Dai: A former Google research scientist with a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, Dai was a core technical staff member at xAI. He left in March 2026.

• Guodong Zhang: His official departure is anticipated soon.

Beyond the Chinese co-founders, other original members have also left, including Christian Szegedy, who had a 12-year tenure at Google, Toby Pohlen, who spent six years at Google, and Igor Babuschkin and Kyle Kosic from OpenAI.

Currently, only three of the original 12 founding members remain: Manuel Kroiss, a former Google engineer; Ross Nordeen from Tesla's supercomputing division; and Elon Musk himself.

Three silhouetted figures under a spotlight on a dark stage, symbolizing the remaining xAI founders.

The departures coincide with xAI's integration into SpaceX and its pursuit of an IPO with a potential valuation up to $1.5 trillion. This shift towards rapid results and capital market demands may present challenges for the company's initial mission to "understand the universe." Musk's approach has historically involved personnel changes and restructuring. The impact of these changes on xAI's future direction remains to be seen.