According to The Information, over 50 researchers and engineers have left SpaceXAI, Elon Musk’s recently renamed company, since its merger in February, with departures spanning teams working on code, world models, and Grok’s voice capabilities. This wave of changes has impacted multiple core research and development areas of the company.
Pre-training team reduced
The most notable concern is the change in the pretraining team. The report states that after the departure of team lead Juntang Zhuang, the core members responsible for model pretraining have been reduced to just a few individuals. Since pretraining is the starting point for developing new models, this shift has raised concerns within the company and among those close to it.
The report also stated that some employees have begun to question whether SpaceXAI continues to invest heavily in developing leading models. For a company targeting competition in large models, a reduction in the pre-training team typically directly impacts the pace of subsequent model development.
Talent is flowing to competitors.
Former employees are moving to other AI companies. According to reports, since February, at least 11 former xAI employees have joined Meta, and at least seven have moved to Thinking Machine Labs, founded by Mira Murati. TechCrunch previously reported that shortly after the merger announcement, 11 xAI employees left, including two co-founders.
This means that while SpaceXAI is working on internal integration, it also faces ongoing competition for its core talent. For companies still advancing model training and product iteration, such attrition increases pressure on organizational stability.
The reason for leaving points to management and兑现 needs.
The report noted that Musk has long emphasized a high-intensity work culture, which may be one reason some employees have left. Sources close to the company said management set overly aggressive deadlines for model training, leading to rushed development of Grok.
On the other hand, some employees may be motivated by the desire to realize gains from their equity. The report notes that SpaceX has long allowed employees to privately sell vested shares. As expectations for the company’s IPO rise, some employees may prefer to leave before liquidity events rather than continue enduring a high-pressure work environment.
Currently, TechCrunch has reached out to SpaceX for comment on the above report.