Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI has been bleeding staff since its merger

埃隆·马斯克的 SpaceXAI 自合并以来人才流失严重

Elon Musk’s newly rebranded SpaceXAI is reportedly losing top talent, with more than 50 researchers and engineers departing since February, according to The Information. The exits include key leaders across coding, world models, and Grok voice. 据《The Information》报道，埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）新更名的 SpaceXAI 正面临顶尖人才流失，自二月份以来，已有超过 50 名研究人员和工程师离职。离职人员包括负责代码、世界模型和 Grok 语音等关键领域的领导者。

Rivals like Meta and Thinking Machine Labs are reportedly scooping up former staff, with the company’s core pre-training team dwindling to just a handful of people. Since February, at least 11 xAI employees have defected to Meta, according to The Information’s report. At least seven have left to join Mira Murati’s Thinking Machine Labs. TechCrunch has previously reported on 11 of the xAI departures announced directly after the merger, including two co-founders. 据报道，Meta 和 Thinking Machine Labs 等竞争对手正在积极吸纳这些前员工，导致该公司核心的预训练团队仅剩下寥寥数人。据《The Information》报道，自二月以来，至少有 11 名 xAI 员工跳槽至 Meta，另有至少 7 人加入了米拉·穆拉蒂（Mira Murati）的 Thinking Machine Labs。TechCrunch 此前曾报道过合并后立即宣布的 11 起 xAI 离职事件，其中包括两名联合创始人。

SpaceX acquired xAI — two companies owned by Musk — in February and has since installed new leadership at the company. Musk renamed the combined company SpaceXAI earlier this month. SpaceX 在二月份收购了同为马斯克旗下的 xAI 公司，并随后为该公司任命了新的领导层。本月初，马斯克将合并后的公司更名为 SpaceXAI。

The pre-training departures, which followed the exit of team lead Juntang Zhuang, have particularly concerned employees and people close to SpaceXAI, per The Information. Pre-training is the first step to building new AI models, and many have questioned whether the company is still committed to developing leading models. 据《The Information》报道，继团队负责人庄俊棠（Juntang Zhuang，音译）离职后，预训练团队的人员流失引起了员工及 SpaceXAI 相关人士的特别担忧。预训练是构建新 AI 模型的第一步，许多人开始质疑该公司是否仍致力于开发领先的模型。

The report also found that Musk’s culture of extreme work led some staff to leave — something Musk employees across his companies, including Tesla, have complained about. A source who spoke to The Information said Musk set unrealistic deadlines for training models, which led to cutting corners on Grok. 报告还发现，马斯克推崇的“极端工作文化”导致了一些员工的离职——这也是马斯克旗下包括特斯拉在内的各公司员工经常抱怨的问题。一位向《The Information》透露消息的人士称，马斯克为模型训练设定了不切实际的截止日期，这导致了 Grok 在开发过程中不得不“走捷径”。

Of course, several of the exits could have been driven by a desire to cash out. SpaceX regularly offers tenders so employees can sell vested shares privately. Others might simply feel confident that their equity is close to liquidity given the company’s blockbuster IPO expectations. Once employees see the financial upside light at the end of the tunnel, they’re less likely to work at a company that puts undue pressure on them and may not be building the leading models they want to work on. 当然，部分离职可能源于员工想要套现的愿望。SpaceX 定期提供要约收购，允许员工私下出售已归属的股票。其他人可能仅仅是因为公司有着极高的 IPO 预期，从而对股权变现充满信心。一旦员工看到了财务回报的曙光，他们就不太愿意继续留在一家施加过大压力、且可能无法开发出他们理想中领先模型的公司工作。

TechCrunch has reached out to SpaceX for comment. TechCrunch 已联系 SpaceX 请求置评。