Burnout and Elon Musk’s politics spark exodus from senior xAI, Tesla staff (arstechnica.com)

A steady exodus of senior staff has hit Elon Musk’s empire over the past year, with particularly rapid churn at xAI after its March merger with X. Senior departures span Tesla’s US sales, battery and power-train operations, public affairs, CIO, and core members of the Optimus robot and AI teams, while xAI lost its CFO and general counsel after very short tenures. Reported drivers include burnout from a relentless 24/7 “Tesla time” work culture (one former exec cited 120+ hour weeks), frustration with strategic pivots and mass layoffs, and discomfort with Musk’s political activism. High‑profile exits include xAI GC Robert Keele and CFO Mike Liberatore, who left after 102 days to join OpenAI. For the AI/ML community these departures matter because they erode continuity and technical depth on projects that require tight hardware‑software integration—most notably Tesla’s Optimus robotics program and xAI’s nascent models and research teams. Loss of institutional knowledge in battery, powertrain and systems engineering could delay product roadmaps; defections to competitors like OpenAI intensify talent competition. The situation underscores a trade‑off between founder-driven, high‑velocity cultures that can move fast and the risk of high turnover that jeopardizes complex, long‑horizon AI and robotics efforts—creating both disruption for incumbents and hiring opportunities for rivals and startups.