5 Chinese Co-founders Exit, Only 3 Remain of 12 Founders, Musk's xAI Dream Shattered?

New Intelligence Report

Editor: Metaverse

【New Intelligence Overview】Out of 12 co-founders, only 3 remain; all 5 Chinese co-founders have left. Behind this major shake-up is Elon Musk’s anxiety and cost associated with betting on a trillion-dollar IPO.

All five Chinese co-founders of xAI have left.

This week, reports emerged that Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang have resigned from xAI. Previously, three Chinese co-founders of xAI had already left.

Guodong Zhang directly reported to Musk at xAI and was responsible for two key projects: Grok Code and Grok Imagine.

Earlier this year, just before Tony Wu left the company, Guodong Zhang was given greater responsibilities at xAI.

Guodong Zhang

Elon Musk’s xAI is experiencing a wave of founder departures.

His departure came just days after Zihang Dai left.

Tony Wu and Jimmy Ba left last month, and Greg Yang had to step back due to health reasons.

Now, all five Chinese co-founders have left.

Out of the 11 people who co-founded the company with Musk in 2023, only Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen remain.

On the eve of integrating into SpaceX and aiming for a trillion-dollar valuation IPO, why did this group of talented individuals—who once helped establish xAI and sought to “understand the true nature of the universe”—collectively step down?

PhD from the University of Toronto

One of Musk’s closest associates at xAI

Guodong Zhang reports directly to Musk.

He manages two strategic products: Grok Code (code intelligence) and Grok Imagine (image and video generation).

Earlier this year, just before Tony Wu, his core AI model co-leader, left, Guodong Zhang was entrusted with greater responsibilities, overseeing both pre-training and post-training operations.

Guodong Zhang earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 2023, focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence.

His research on noisy quadratic models and neural network training dynamics has been used by industry labs including Anthropic, DeepMind, and OpenAI for training their latest models.

During his PhD, he interned at Microsoft Research, Google Brain, and DeepMind; after graduation, he worked as a research scientist at DeepMind.

Until 2023, when Musk founded xAI, he became one of the co-founders. After joining, Guodong Zhang quickly became one of the core technical pillars.

Collective Departure of Five Chinese Co-founders

Back to March 2023.

Musk quietly registered a company in Nevada, where he is the sole director—this is xAI.

Four months later, on July 12, xAI was officially announced.

The company’s vision is “to understand the true nature of the universe,” prioritizing curiosity and truth.

The list of 12 founders was revealed, shocking the entire AI community. Almost all are top scientists recruited from Google, DeepMind, OpenAI, and Microsoft Research.

Among the 12 co-founders, five are Chinese, nearly half.

Greg Yang

Former top researcher at Microsoft Research.

Due to Lyme disease, he transitioned to an advisory role starting January 2025, and later left the company.

Tony Wu

(吴宇怀)

Left in February 2026.

Former Google researcher, Stanford postdoc, interned at DeepMind and OpenAI.

He co-led the development of xAI’s core models with Guodong Zhang.

He left in February 2026, leaving a message: “Thanks to the entire xAI family, thanks to Elon for believing in this mission, and for this unforgettable journey of a lifetime.”

Jimmy Ba

Left in February 2026.

Assistant professor at the University of Toronto, a direct disciple of Hinton.

Jimmy Ba led much of xAI’s operations and was one of the few founders who understood both academia and management.

At departure, he wrote: “It’s time to recalibrate my overall direction. 2026 will be a crazy year, likely the busiest and most critical year for humanity’s future.”

Zihang Dai

Left in March 2026.

Former Google researcher, PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

One of xAI’s core technical team members.

Before co-founding xAI, he worked at Google and earned his PhD at Carnegie Mellon.

Guodong Zhang

Planning to leave soon.

By now, all five Chinese co-founders have almost entirely exited.

Not only Chinese; including other co-founders: Christian Szegedy, who worked at Google for 12 years, has left; Toby Pohlen, who spent six years at Google, has left; Igor Babuschkin and Kyle Kosic from OpenAI have also departed.

Now, only three of the original 12 founders remain: former Google engineer Manuel Kroiss, former Tesla supercomputing department head Ross Nordeen, and Elon Musk himself.

All five Chinese co-founders have left.

xAI has been acquired by SpaceX, with an IPO imminent, and its valuation could reach up to $1.5 trillion.

The logic of capital is simple: deliver results—fast, faster; perhaps this is too much weight for the original xAI, which aimed to “understand the universe.”

Musk’s usual approach is to replace people, rebuild, and bring in new blood.

But after rebuilding, will xAI still be the same xAI? What changes will occur? No one knows yet.

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