Ex-Nvidia engineer leaves Elon Musk’s xAI just nine months after building Grok Imagine

xAI

• Engineer Zeeshan Patel exits xAI after 9 months, contributed to Grok Imagine tool.
• Patel was first hire for xAI's video team, led development of Grok Imagine v0.9
• Grok Imagine now creates millions of videos daily on X and the Grok app

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An engineer who helped build xAI’s video tool Grok Imagine has left the company just nine months after joining. Zeeshan Patel shared the news in a post on X, where he looked back on his short but intense time at xAI, the AI startup founded by Elon Musk.

Before joining xAI, Zeeshan worked at Nvidia. He joined xAI last year as the very first hire for a new video generation team. In his post, he described the experience as demanding but rewarding, with long workdays and little room for slowing down.

Zeeshan said that when he joined, the goal was clear but tough. The team wanted to build a strong video generation model from scratch in about three months. To make that happen, a small group worked closely together, often late into the night. He described those early days as exhausting but focused, with everyone pushing hard to meet the deadline.

After a few months of work, the team released its first version of the model, called Grok Imagine v0.9. That early version later led to Grok Imagine 1.0, which Zeeshan said is now used to create millions of videos every day. The feature has quickly become one of the most used tools on X and the Grok app.

In his post, Zeeshan thanked many of his teammates for their support during late nights and tight deadlines. He also thanked Elon Musk for taking the time to review the work and guide the team, including during very early morning meetings.

Zeeshan did not explain why he chose to leave xAI so soon, but he made it clear that he is proud of what the team built. He said he has started a new chapter that feels familiar but also very different, and hinted that he will share more about it later.