Trending on X: 50+ xAI Researchers Have Walked Since SpaceX Took Over
What Happened
Theo Wayt reports that xAI has bled senior talent at an accelerating pace following its absorption into SpaceX. Departures span the safety, pretraining, and infra teams. Meta's superintelligence group and Mira Murati's Thinking Machines are the two largest destinations, with both shops paying aggressively and offering more research autonomy than the current Musk org structure allows.
My Take
Capital and compute are necessary but not sufficient — you also need a culture researchers want to stay inside. Musk's playbook of grueling hours and political loyalty tests works in rockets and cars, but AI talent has options nobody else in his portfolio ever had. The lesson for any CEO building an AI org: your top ten people can leave on Tuesday and be productive somewhere else by Wednesday. Treat them accordingly or watch your moat walk out the door.
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