Elon Musk’s recently rebranded venture, SpaceXAI, is experiencing a significant talent drain, with over 50 researchers and engineers leaving since February, as reported by The Information. The departures include key figures in areas such as coding, world models, and Grok voice. Competitors like Meta and Thinking Machine Labs are reportedly snapping up former employees, while the company’s core pre-training team has shrunk to just a handful of members. Since February, at least 11 xAI employees have moved to Meta, according to The Information. Another seven have joined Mira Murati’s Thinking Machine Labs.

SpaceX acquired xAI—both companies are owned by Musk—in February and has since appointed new leadership. Musk renamed the combined entity SpaceXAI earlier this month. The pre-training departures, which followed the exit of team lead Juntang Zhuang, have raised concerns among employees and those close to SpaceXAI, per The Information. Pre-training is the foundational step in building new AI models, and many are questioning whether the company remains committed to developing cutting-edge models.

The report also highlights that Musk’s demanding work culture drove some staff to leave—a complaint echoed by employees across his other ventures, including Tesla. A source told The Information that Musk set unrealistic deadlines for training models, leading to shortcuts in Grok’s development. Of course, some exits may have been motivated by a desire to cash out. SpaceX regularly offers tenders, allowing employees to sell vested shares privately. Others might feel confident that their equity is close to liquidity, given the company’s blockbuster IPO expectations. Once employees see the financial rewards on the horizon, they become less willing to endure the intense pressure or work on models that may not be at the forefront of the field.