Another high-profile exit at Elon Musk’s xAI as CFO departs

xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, has seen another major shake-up at the top. Chief Financial Officer Mike Liberatore has left the company, according to The Wall Street Journal, continuing a wave of senior executive departures.

Liberatore, a former Airbnb executive, joined xAI in April and left around the end of July. During his short tenure, he played a key role in orchestrating a $5 billion debt raise and another $5 billion equity round, nearly half of which came from SpaceX. He was also involved in overseeing xAI’s new data centre expansion in Memphis — a critical move for scaling its AI infrastructure.

His exit follows closely on the heels of other departures. In August, general counsel Robert Keele left after just over a year, while senior lawyer Raghu Rao also departed. Last month, co-founder Igor Babuschkin announced he was leaving to start a venture capital firm focused on AI safety research. And in July, Linda Yaccarino, the former CEO of X (formerly Twitter), resigned amid concerns about Grok, xAI’s AI chatbot.

The string of exits has raised questions about xAI’s stability just months after it completed the acquisition of X in late March. Musk has pitched xAI as a challenger to OpenAI and Google, but turnover at the leadership level could hinder momentum at a time when the AI industry is moving at breakneck speed.