xAI's CFO Mike Liberatore Departs Amid Executive Exodus at Elon Musk's AI Startup

xAI's CFO is the latest executive to leave Elon Musk's AI firm | TechCrunch

Mike Liberatore, xAI's chief financial officer, has left the company, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. This marks the latest in a string of high-profile executive departures. The former Airbnb executive joined the company in April and left around the end of July, per the WSJ. While at xAI, he helped orchestrate the company's $5 billion debt raise, alongside another $5 billion in equity -- almost half of which came from SpaceX. He also oversaw some of the Elon Musk-owned AI firm's data center expansion in Memphis. Liberatore's departure comes after xAI's general counsel, Robert Keele, left in August -- a little over a year on the job. Raghu Rao, a senior lawyer, left around the same time as Keele and Liberatore, per the WSJ. Igor Babuschkin, an xAI co-founder, announced his departure last month, saying he left the company to launch his own VC firm dedicated to AI safety research.

xAI's CFO is the latest executive to leave the Elon Musk's AI firm | TechCrunch

Mike Liberatore, xAI's chief financial officer, has left the company, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. This marks the latest in a string of high-profile executive departures. The former Airbnb executive joined the company in April and left around the end of July, per WSJ. While at xAI, he helped orchestrate the company's $5 billion debt raise, alongside another $5 billion in equity -- almost half of which came from SpaceX. He also oversaw some of the Elon Musk-owned AI firm's data center expansion in Memphis. Liberatore's departure comes after xAI's general counsel, Robert Keele, left in August -- a little over a year on the job. Raghu Rao, a senior lawyer, left around the same time as Keele and Liberatore, per WSJ. Igor Babuschkin, an xAI co-founder, announced his departure last month, saying he left the company to launch his own VC firm dedicated to AI safety research.

XAI CFO Leaves Elon Musk's AI Venture Three Months After Taking Job

XAI Chief Financial Officer Mike Liberatore has left the company just a few months after taking the job, according to people familiar with the matter, creating a high-profile vacancy at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup. Liberatore joined xAI earlier this year and was involved in some of the company's fundraising efforts and data center expansions in Memphis. But he left the company in July, just three months after starting, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the news earlier Wednesday.

xAI's finance chief steps down after a few months on job, WSJ reports

Sept 3 (Reuters) - The finance chief of Elon Musk's xAI, Mike Liberatore, has left the artificial intelligence startup after just a few months on the job, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Liberatore's departure comes amid intensifying competition among AI players such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, which are pouring resources into training and deploying advanced systems. Liberatore had been xAI's chief financial officer since April and left around the end of July, the report said. The reasons for his departure could not be learned. xAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Musk launched xAI in 2023 to challenge Big Tech's AI push, accusing industry leaders of excessive censorship and lax safety standards. Liberatore's exit follows the departure of Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of xAI, who left in August to launch an investment firm focused on AI safety research. xAI's legal head, Robert Keele, had also left in August. Musk-owned social media platform X's CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned in July, just months after the platform was folded into xAI. Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Arun Koyyur Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

The exit of Elon Musk's xAI CFO is the latest example of executive turnover at high-profile startups

Good morning. I've been writing about the uptick in CFO turnover. The latest high-profile departure is at multibillionaire Elon Musk's xAI. Mike Liberatore stepped down abruptly as the finance chief of Musk's artificial intelligence startup, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal citing anonymous sources. Liberatore was hired in April and reportedly left in late July. The reasons for his departure are not known, but he followed other high-profile exits from xAI of late. The company did not immediately respond to my request for comment. Before joining xAI, Liberatore worked at Airbnb for almost nine years -- most recently as VP of finance and corporate development -- and had previously served in several business unit CFO roles. He's also worked at Intel, eBay, and PayPal. During his brief tenure at xAI, he reportedly helped raise $10 billion in funding and expanded data center operations. Launched by Musk in July 2023, xAI is a competitor of OpenAI. Both companies develop large language models and AI assistants -- OpenAI with ChatGPT, xAI with Grok -- that target overlapping user bases. Liberatore's departure follows a wave of exits, including cofounder Igor Babuschkin (who left to start a VC firm focused on AI safety), General Counsel Robert Keele after one year, and senior lawyer Raghu Rao. xAI's leadership is highly centralized under Musk, with no publicly disclosed independent board. Michael Morris, a professor at Columbia Business School, shared his assessment with me. He noted that Keele cited differences in worldview with Musk and family priorities in his LinkedIn post about leaving. Of course, Musk also played a key role in the Trump White House earlier this year. Morris also observed that executive turnover among Musk's direct reports at Tesla is 44%, compared to about 9% at Meta, Amazon, and Netflix; overall, Tesla's executive turnover rate is 27%, nearly double the industry average. "Analysts point to Musk's demanding, high-contact leadership style -- managing up to 18 direct reports at once -- as a key reason for the trend," Morris said. "This pattern is visible not only at Tesla but also at X and xAI, suggesting structural factors rather than isolated events." He added that many executives leave rather than risk being blamed when new initiatives encounter regulatory hurdles: "Executives don't want to become the 'fall guy.'" xAI isn't alone in seeing mass executive departures. Last year, OpenAI also saw multiple senior departures -- such as cofounder John Schulman and CTO Mira Murati. Also in 2024, at the DNA testing startup 23andMe, all seven independent directors resigned simultaneously, citing major disagreements with CEO Anne Wojcicki and her plans to take the company private. Frequent executive departures often indicate strategic misalignment or a resistant company culture, especially in founder-led startups and fast-moving AI companies, Martha Heller, CEO of technology executive search firm Heller, told me. "In AI-focused companies, the very public failures of new large language models and uncertainty over true AI ROI can create an additional layer of finger-pointing, further upsetting leadership stability," Heller said. Robert Kelley, professor of management at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, explained that if top-level executives are continually leaving, "it's a vote of no confidence in either the CEO, the board, or the strategy of the company." It's unusual at startups for most executives to just walk away in a short period of time, Kelley said. Most people who join do so because they believe in the company and also think there's going to be a big payoff, he explained. To stem disruption, if a notable number of executives leave a company, transparent communication to customers and employees is key, Heller said. And the CEO of the company should also "take a look in the mirror and ask the hard question, 'Am I the problem?'" Kelley said. "Over time, I learned that true leadership means trusting your people and building a culture where no one feels compelled to give everything to the job or sacrifice their health to prove it." -- Kari Cobham, founding director of fellowships at The 19th News, writes in a Fortune opinion piece titled, "What almost dying -- again -- taught me about authentic leadership."

Elon Musk's xAI Faces High Exec Turnover as CFO and Key Leaders Step Down

Elon Musk's A.I. startup is grappling with rapid growth, controversy and mounting leadership churn. Mike Liberatore, chief financial officer of Elon Musk's xAI, has left the company after just three months, the Wall Street Journal first reported. His exit adds to a wave of high-profile turnover at the startup. Launched by Musk in 2023, xAI is best known for its Grok chatbot. The company's technology has quickly caught up to competitors, but Grok has also made headlines for controversial outputs and now for a string of executive departures. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters Liberatore joined xAI in April after eight years at Airbnb, where he was vice president of finance and corporate development. He also previously worked at PayPal and eBay. At xAI, he was reportedly involved in fundraising and oversaw data center expansion efforts in Memphis, Tenn. Liberatore left in July, according to the Journal. Around the same time, Raghu Rao, xAI's former commercial lead, also departed. Rao had joined in April following roles at Zoom, Ernst & Young and Deloitte. Another loss came this summer when Robert Keele, a member of xAI's legal team, stepped away from his role as general counsel. "Working with Elon on this tech, at this time, was the adventure of a lifetime," Keele wrote in an Aug. 5 X post. He said he was leaving to spend more time with his family. His farewell included a Grok-generated video of a man in a suit shoveling coal, which Keele said was the chatbot's response to the prompt: "What's it like to lead legal at xAI?" Musk built xAI in just a few years with a founding team largely drawn from OpenAI and Google. Of the dozen co-founders, at least three have since left. Kyle Kosic is now at OpenAI, while Christian Szegedy became chief scientist at Morph Labs. Both departed last year. The most recent co-founder to exit was Igor Babushkin, who led engineering teams at the firm before leaving in August to launch his own venture capital firm focused on A.I. startups and agentic systems. "We wouldn't be here without you," said Musk in an Aug. 13 post responding to Babushkin's announcement. Not every departure has been as cordial. Last month, xAI filed a lawsuit against Xuechen Li, a former member of xAI's technical team, accusing him of stealing trade secrets to take to a new role at OpenAI. Li, who joined xAI in February 2024 and helped develop Grok, allegedly uploaded confidential data before accepting an offer from OpenAI in August. On Sept. 3, xAI won a court order temporarily blocking Li from starting the new job.

xAI's finance chief steps down after a few months on job, WSJ reports - The Economic Times

Liberatore's departure comes amid intensifying competition among AI players such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, which are pouring resources into training and deploying advanced systems.The finance chief of Elon Musk's xAI, Mike Liberatore, has left the artificial intelligence startup after just a few months on the job, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Liberatore's departure comes amid intensifying competition among AI players such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, which are pouring resources into training and deploying advanced systems. Liberatore had been xAI's chief financial officer since April and left around the end of July, the report said. The reasons for his departure could not be learned. xAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. A former Airbnb executive, Liberatore was involved in xAI's $5 billion debt raise in June, alongside a separate $5 billion strategic equity investment. The proceeds will support xAI's development of AI solutions, a data center and its flagship Grok platform, Morgan Stanley had said. Musk launched xAI in 2023 to challenge Big Tech's AI push, accusing industry leaders of excessive censorship and lax safety standards. Liberatore's exit follows the departure of Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of xAI, who left in August to launch an investment firm focused on AI safety research. xAI's legal head, Robert Keele, had also left in August. Musk-owned social media platform X's CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned in July, just months after the platform was folded into xAI.

Elon Musk's xAI Hit By CFO Exit, Adding To Wave Of Leadership Departures: Report - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI faces mounting leadership instability as Chief Financial Officer Mike Liberatore departed in late July after just three months on the job, marking the latest in a series of high-profile executive exits that could signal operational challenges for the AI venture. CFO Departure Follows Rapid Fundraising Success Liberatore joined xAI in April and played a key role in the company's massive $10 billion funding round completed in June. The former Airbnb executive helped orchestrate a $5 billion debt sale through Morgan Stanley Co. Inc. MS alongside $5 billion in equity, with Tesla Inc. TSLA contributing nearly half the equity investment. The CFO also oversaw critical infrastructure expansion at xAI's Memphis data center operations before his unexpected departure around July's end, reported the Wall Street Journal, citing sources. Property records show Liberatore signed off on transmission line easements for the company's Tennessee facilities just weeks before leaving. xAI Corp. did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment. Wave of Executive Exits Raises Stability Concerns The leadership exodus extends beyond the CFO role. General Counsel Robert Keele announced his departure on August 7 after just over a year, citing "daylight between our worldviews" with Musk in his farewell post featuring a Grok-generated image of a "crazed-looking man shoveling coal." Co-founder Igor Babuschkin, a veteran from Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL GOOG DeepMind and OpenAI, left August 13 to launch an AI safety venture capital firm. Senior commercial lawyer Raghu Rao also departed around the same timeframe as Liberatore and Keele, according to the report. See Also: Trump Warns Supreme Court Tariff Defeat Could Force US To 'Unwind' EU, Japan, South Korea Trade Deals -- 'Our Country Is Going To Suffer So Greatly' Operational Challenges Amid Aggressive Expansion The departures come as xAI pursues ambitious infrastructure goals, including plans to raise $12 billion in additional debt to purchase NVIDIA Corp. NVDA chips for supercomputing clusters. Musk recently announced xAI operates 230,000 GPUs for training its Grok chatbot, with plans for 550,000 additional chips. However, technical malfunctions have plagued Grok, including antisemitic posts and violent content generation that forced temporary disconnection from the X platform. The incidents contributed to former X CEO Linda Yaccarino's resignation and subsequent demotion after Musk merged X with xAI earlier this year. The executive turnover coincides with legal battles, including xAI's lawsuit against former engineer Xuechen Li for allegedly stealing trade secrets before joining OpenAI, highlighting the intense competition for AI talent and intellectual property in the sector. Read Next: Mark Cuban Says Drug Companies Intentionally Create Shortages. Even Pediatric Cancer Drugs Are Manipulated To Jack Up Prices Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock GOOGAlphabet Inc$231.909.39%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum80.19Growth79.19Quality80.44Value50.12Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewGOOGLAlphabet Inc$231.459.51%MSMorgan Stanley$148.53-0.21%NVDANVIDIA Corp$170.40-0.22%TSLATesla Inc$334.941.69%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

CFO of Elon Musk's xAI leaves company after a few months on job in...

The chief financial officer of Elon Musk's xAI reportedly left the company after just a few months on the job - the latest in a series of high-profile executive exits that have thinned out its ranks. Mike Liberatore, a former executive at Airbnb, left the CFO post in July, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. He had only held the C-suite gig since April. The reasons for Liberatore's exit from xAI were not immediately clear, according to the outlet. He had reportedly played a key role in xAI's recent fundraising efforts as well as the artificial intelligence firm's plans to build out data centers in the greater Memphis area. Musk, who is known for discussing the inner workings of his companies on X, has yet to address Liberatore's exit. The departure appears to have occurred around the same time that Linda Yaccarino abruptly announced her resignation as CEO of X, which became a subsidiary of xAI after Musk combined the entities earlier this year. Yaccarino did not specify the reasons for her July exit, though it came shortly after X was forced to disable text responses from its "Grok" AI chatbot after it began referring to itself as "Mecha-Hitler" and espousing pro-Nazi views. A source close to the situation told The Post that Yaccarino's departure had been in the works for over a week before it was announced and was unrelated to the Grok meltdown. She has since taken a role as CEO of the digital health firm eMed Population Health. Meanwhile, xAI's general counsel Robert Keele stepped down last month after slightly more than a year in the role. In a farewell note he shared on X and LinkedIn, Keele said he wanted to spend more time with his two toddlers. Keele called his stint at xAI the "adventure of a lifetime" and praised Musk for his "vision, commitment and smarts," even as he acknowledged that there was "daylight between our worldviews." Elsewhere, Igor Babushkin, a leading AI researcher who cofounded xAI alongside Musk in 2023, said in August that he was leaving to start his own investment firm dedicated to AI safety. Another xAI lawyer, Raghu Rao, also recently left the company, according to the Journal. Musk's merger valued X at $33 billion and xAI at $80 billion. XAI directly competes with top AI firms, including Sam Altman's OpenAI and Google. Representatives for xAI did not immediately return The Post's request for comment.