xAI Layoffs Approximately 10 Employees, Recent Departures Include Mistral AI Founding Member

On May 9, just weeks after Elon Musk’s company secured an acquisition option for the coding startup for $60 billion, Cursor has begun to gradually exert influence within the AI department of SpaceX. According to two insiders, Cursor employees have visited the xAI office to meet with internal staff and discuss work matters. The insiders noted that this was followed by a series of employee departures from xAI, with layoffs occurring last Friday. One insider indicated that the layoffs affected about 10 employees from various teams involved in the development of the Grok large model. Another insider revealed that as of last fall, the xAI research team had about 200 members, but there is currently no precise information on the total number of employees. Recent departures from xAI also include Devendra Chaplet, a founding member of Mistral AI and Thinking Machines Lab, who was considered a significant talent when he joined xAI in March, reporting directly to Musk. Insiders stated that he left the company after only about a month. In recent weeks, employees responsible for the data center operations at xAI have also faced layoffs.