Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has lost another key leader. Mike Liberatore, the firm’s chief financial officer, has stepped down after only a few months in the role, according to The Wall Street Journal. His departure adds to a string of high-level exits that have left many watching the company’s leadership closely.
Liberatore, who previously worked at Airbnb, joined AI Startup in April and left by late July. In that short span, he played an important role in shaping the company’s financial strategy. He helped pull together a massive $10 billion raise — half in debt, half in equity — with nearly half of the equity portion coming from SpaceX, Musk’s other company. Liberatore also oversaw parts of xAI’s data center expansion in Memphis, a key piece of the company’s push to build more powerful AI systems.
But his exit is not an isolated event. Over the past few months, xAI has seen several other senior leaders walk away. General counsel Robert Keele resigned in August after just over a year at the firm, while senior lawyer Raghu Rao also departed around the same time. Igor Babuschkin, one of the company’s co-founders, left earlier in the summer to start his own venture capital firm focused on AI safety. And in July, Linda Yaccarino, the former CEO of X (formerly Twitter), also resigned, following controversies linked to xAI’s chatbot Grok.
These back-to-back departures highlight the challenges of building a new AI company in one of the most competitive industries today. For xAI, the timing is especially sensitive. The company is positioning itself as a rival to OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic — firms that are pushing out increasingly advanced AI Startup models at a rapid pace. Leadership changes at this stage can slow progress, making it harder to keep up.
At the same time, Musk has a history of navigating leadership turnover across his companies. Tesla, SpaceX, and X have all seen waves of executives come and go, yet they remain influential players in their industries. Some observers see the recent exits at xAI as the growing pains of a young company trying to scale quickly. Others worry that without stable leadership, the firm could struggle to execute its ambitious plans.
Looking Back and Looking Forward
xAI was founded with the goal of developing AI technology that can compete directly with the biggest names in the field. From the start, Musk positioned it as a challenger to OpenAI, a company he helped launch but later left. Since then, xAI has rolled out Grok, its AI chatbot available on X, while raising billions of dollars to support its growth.
The departure of Liberatore and other senior leaders marks an uncertain moment for the company. Still, with Musk’s deep pockets, strong influence in the tech world, and the ability to attract new talent, xAI is far from out of the race. The next few months will show whether the firm can steady its leadership team and continue expanding its AI Startup ambitions — or whether these departures signal deeper issues inside the company.