Elon Musk's SpaceXAI has been bleeding staff since its merger (2 minute read)

# Elon Musk's SpaceXAI has been bleeding staff since its merger | TechCrunch Source: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/14/elon-musks-spacexai-has-been-bleeding-staff-since-its-merger/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/14/elon-musks-spacexai-has-been-bleeding-staff-since-its-merger/) Elon Musk’s newly rebranded SpaceXAI is reportedly losing top talent, with more than 50 researchers and engineers departing since February,[according to The Information](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/spacexai-exodus-50-recent-exits-meta-thinking-machines-hire-staff)\. The exits include key leaders across coding, world models, and Grok voice\. Rivals like Meta and Thinking Machines Lab are reportedly scooping up former staff, with the company’s core pre\-training team dwindling to just a handful of people\. Since February, at least 11 xAI employees have defected to Meta, according to The Information’s report\. At least seven have left to join Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab\. TechCrunch has previously reported on[11 of the xAI departures](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/13/elon-musk-suggests-spate-of-xai-exits-have-been-push-not-pull/)announced directly after the merger, including[two co\-founders](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/nearly-half-of-xais-founding-team-has-now-left-the-company/)\. [SpaceX acquired xAI](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/02/elon-musk-spacex-acquires-xai-data-centers-space-merger/)— two companies owned by Musk — in February and has since installed new leadership at the company\. Musk renamed the combined company SpaceXAI earlier this month\. The pre\-training departures, which followed the exit of team lead Juntang Zhuang, have particularly concerned employees and people close to SpaceXAI, per The Information\. Pre\-training is the first step to building new AI models, and many have questioned whether the company is still committed to developing leading models\. The report also found that Musk’s culture of extreme work led some staff to leave — something Musk employees across his companies, including Tesla, have complained about\. A source who spoke to The Information said Musk set unrealistic deadlines for training models, which led to cutting corners on Grok\. Of course, several of the exits could have been driven by a desire to cash out\. SpaceX regularly offers tenders so employees can sell vested shares privately\. Others might simply feel confident that their equity is close to liquidity given the company’s blockbuster IPO expectations\. Once employees see the financial light at the end of the tunnel, they’re less likely to work at a company that puts undue pressure on them and may not be building the leading models they want to work on\. TechCrunch has reached out to SpaceX for comment\. *When you purchase through links in our articles,[we may earn a small commission](https://techcrunch.com/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards/)\. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence\.* Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch where she covers the business, policy, and emerging trends shaping artificial intelligence\. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and other publications\. You can contact or verify outreach from Rebecca by emailing[rebecca\.bellan@techcrunch\.com](mailto:[email protected])or via encrypted message at rebeccabellan\.491 on Signal\. [View Bio](https://techcrunch.com/author/rebecca-bellan/)