xAI final co-founder Ross Nordeen departs, Elon Musk now loses all 8 co-founders ahead of SpaceX IPO
Elon Musk’s xAI has witnessed a complete exodus of its original founding team. The departure of Ross Nordeen marks the end of an era for one of the world’s most popular AI companies, which was thrust into the limelight in 2023. Nordeen, who has been a longtime Musk associate and one of the 11 key members who helped build xAI from its earliest days in 2023, was the final original co-founder to leave.
His exit comes just days after the exit of Manuel Kroiss, who led the pretraining team and reported directly to Musk. All eight original co-founders have left since January 2026, including Guodong Zhang, Zihang Dai, Toby Pohlen, Jimmy Ba, Tony Wu, and Greg Yang. Musk remains the only original member on the board.
