Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has seen another leadership change, with Chief Financial Officer Mike Liberatore leaving the company in July after just three months. His departure adds to a string of exits at the firm and across Musk-led ventures in recent weeks.
xAI sees a wave of departures
According to The Daily Beast, citing the Wall Street Journal, Liberatore’s exit is the fourth high-profile departure from xAI this summer. The reasons for his departure were not disclosed. During his short tenure, he helped coordinate a $5 billion debt sale through Morgan Stanley and led expansion efforts in the Memphis area, the outlet reported.
Liberatore previously spent eight years at Airbnb and held senior finance roles at eBay, PayPal, and SquareTrade. On his LinkedIn profile, he describes himself as a “strategic finance business partner with tireless work ethic,” who is “comfortable going from zero to $10B+.”
Other leadership changes at xAI
In early August, xAI’s general counsel Robert Keele announced he was stepping down to spend more time with his two young children. “Working with Elon on this tech, at this time, was the adventure of a lifetime,” Keele wrote on LinkedIn last month, adding that “there’s daylight between our worldviews,” while praising Musk’s “vision, commitment, and smarts.”
Days later, xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin said he was leaving to launch Babuschkin Ventures, a firm focused on AI safety. In a post on X, he credited Musk with teaching him to “personally dig into technical problems” and to have a “maniacal sense of urgency.” Musk responded: “Thanks for helping build xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.”
Raghu Rao, a senior lawyer overseeing commercial legal affairs at xAI, also exited the company this summer, according to the Journal, as reported by The Daily Beast.
Turnover extends to X
The departures are not limited to xAI. Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Musk’s social platform X, stepped down in July following a brief tenure marked by controversies, including antisemitic comments by X’s AI chatbot Grok that same week, The Daily Beast reported. “After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” she wrote. Musk replied publicly: “Thank you for your contributions.”
The Daily Beast said it reached out to X and Liberatore for comment.
