Elon Musk’s xAI lays off 500 from data annotation team, calls them ‘not needed’: Here’s why

Layoff news: Elon Musk-led artificial intelligence company xAI has laid off at least 500 employees from its data annotation team, which helps develop the Grok chatbot. The company plans to downsize its team of generalist AI tutors, reported the news portal Business Insider on Saturday, 13 September 2025.

According to the news report, these 500 employee job cuts will be effective immediately. The email was reportedly sent to the employees on the night of Friday, 12 September 2025.