Did xAI’s Team All Quit? What the Reports Actually Show

Because those reports use different cofounder baselines — 12 in TechCrunch and 11 in The Next Web — the safest summary is: xAI faced a major cofounder exodus, and one later report said all 11 cofounders had reportedly left ^[7][10].

What the main reports said

That timeline explains why the shorthand spread: the underlying story was significant. But it also shows why “everyone quit” is imprecise. The reporting is about cofounders, researchers, senior engineers, and top employees — not the full workforce ^{[7][8][10][14]}.

Where the “all quit” framing came from

One source of the more dramatic wording is a YouTube video published Apr. 22, 2026, titled “The $250 Billion Lie. Why Musk’s Elite Team All QUIT.” Its snippet says Musk’s “entire team vanished” ^[15].

That phrasing is stronger than what the core reports establish. A more accurate version would be: xAI reportedly lost many founding and senior technical leaders, and The Next Web later reported that all 11 cofounders had departed ^{[7][8][10][14]}. That is not the same as proving that the whole company quit.

Who was reported to have left?

The named departures included several senior technical figures. Fortune identified Jimmy Ba, described as a cofounder who led research and safety efforts, and Tony Wu, described as a cofounder who led the reasoning team, among the exits ^[8]. Business Insider also listed Ba and Wu among xAI’s recent top employee departures ^[14].

The Next Web later named Manuel Kroiss, described as having led the pretraining team, and Ross Nordeen, described by Business Insider as Musk’s “right-hand operator,” as the last two of 11 cofounders to leave ^[10].

What did Musk say about the exits?

Musk’s public framing was that xAI was restructuring as it scaled. TechCrunch reported that Musk told staff, “Because we’ve reached a certain scale, we’re organizing the company to be more effective at this scale,” and added that some people are better suited to early-stage companies than later-stage operations ^[7]. Business Insider likewise reported that Musk told xAI’s workforce the company was restructuring as it continued to grow ^[14].

That does not prove one universal reason for every departure. Fortune reported that Ba’s public note thanked Musk and said he would “continue to stay close as a friend of the team,” which makes it difficult to reduce every exit to a single hostile or voluntary explanation ^[8].

Be careful with the biggest numbers

Some secondary claims go beyond the best-supported version of the story. A Metaintro post says all 11 original cofounders and more than 80 researchers and engineers had left xAI ^[1]. The all-11-cofounder claim overlaps with The Next Web’s report, but the “80+” figure is not established across the Fortune, TechCrunch, Business Insider, and The Next Web reports cited here ^{[7][8][10][14]}.

Bottom line

The viral “all quit” claim needs qualification. Reporting shows a serious xAI leadership and research-talent shake-up, including many cofounder departures and, according to The Next Web, all 11 cofounders reportedly leaving by late March 2026 ^{[7][8][10][14]}. It does not show that xAI’s entire workforce quit, and it does not prove a single reason behind every departure.