xAI co-founder Tony Wu abruptly announced his resignation from the company late Monday night, the latest in a string of senior executives to leave the Grok-maker in recent months.
In a post on social media, Wu expressed warm feelings for his time at xAI, but said it was “time for my next chapter.” The current era is one where “a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible,” he wrote.
The mention of what “a small team” can do could hint at a potential reason for Wu’s departure. xAI reportedly had 1,200 employees as of March 2025, a number that included AI engineers and those focused more on the X social network. That number also included 900 employees that served solely as “AI tutors,” though roughly 500 of those were reportedly laid off in September.
Wu’s departure comes just months after fellow xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin departed the company in August to start his own AI safety-focused venture capital firm. Co-founders Kyle Kosic and Christian Szegedy also departed the company since its 2023 founding, and co-founder Greg Yang stepped back from the company last month amid complications from chronic Lyme disease.