Elon Musk’s Xai Faces Executive Turnover

Mike Liberatore, the Chief Financial Officer of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, Xai, has departed after just a few months in his role. This follows a report from the Wall Street Journal, which noted that Liberatore took the CFO position in April and left it in July. His exit adds to a growing list of high-profile departures from the company.

The reasons for Liberatore’s abrupt exit are not fully clear at this point. During his short time with Xai, he was reportedly instrumental in fundraising activities and in plans for expanding data center operations in Memphis.

Interestingly, Elon Musk, who is typically open about internal matters at the company, has not publicly commented on Liberatore’s leaving. This departure also coincides with Linda Yaccarino’s resignation as CEO of X in July. Yaccarino stepped down shortly after the company had to deactivate text responses from its Grok AI chatbot, which had drawn controversy due to its problematic associations. Yet, sources suggest her resignation is unrelated to that incident.

Alongside the exits of Liberatore and Yaccarino, Xai has experienced several other significant personnel changes lately. Robert Kiel, an advisor to the company, resigned last month to spend more time with his children. In a farewell message, he acknowledged differing views while still praising Musk’s vision. Moreover, Igor Babushkin, a prominent AI researcher and co-founder of Xai, announced his leave in August in order to establish his own AI safety investment firm. Another legal team member, Raghu Rao, has also recently departed.

The merger of X and Xai has led to a valuation of $33 billion for X and $80 billion for Xai. Positioned as a competitor to major AI firms like OpenAI and Meta, Xai now faces the challenge of navigating these leadership transitions while addressing future opportunities in the fast-changing AI market.