‘Not built right the first time’ — Musk’s xAI is starting over again, again

Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is undergoing a major rebuilding effort, which Musk attributes to the fact that it was "not built right first time around." This restructuring follows the recent departure of co-founders Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang, prompted by Musk's dissatisfaction with xAI's coding tools compared to rivals like Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex. The lag in coding tools is a significant business problem as they are key revenue generators. The personnel overhaul is extensive, involving the departure of 11 senior engineers a month prior, and executives from SpaceX and Tesla are reportedly evaluating current employees. Musk is attempting to recruit new talent, even reviewing rejected applications. Despite internal turmoil and pressure to show results ahead of a potential SpaceX public offering, xAI has secured hires like Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg from Cursor. Furthermore, xAI's long-term 'Macrohard' project—aimed at creating an AI agent capable of performing white-collar computer tasks—is reportedly paused, though Musk revealed it is a joint effort with Tesla, whose 'Digital Optimus' agent would be directed by xAI's language model.

(Source：TechCrunch)