Musk's xAI loses another key member! Co-founder Yu Huai Wu announces resignation.

Musk's AI startup xAI has lost another co-founder.

On February 10, Tony Wu (Wu Yuhuai) posted on social media announcing his departure from xAI, becoming the latest core member to leave. Previously, several co-founders had already left. Wu Yuhuai stated:

It's time to start my next chapter. This is an era full of possibilities: a small team equipped with AI can move mountains and redefine what's possible.

Previously, other co-founders such as Igor Babuschkin, Kyle Kosic, and Christian Szegedy had also departed. Greg Yang announced last month that he would step down from his role to focus on battling Lyme disease.

Wu Yuhuai’s departure comes as xAI faces consumer backlash and regulatory investigations. The company’s Grok AI can mass-produce and spread explicit deepfake images without consent, based on real photos of individuals including children.

Core Technical Expert in Mathematical Reasoning

Wu Yuhuai is a central figure in xAI’s work on mathematical reasoning and symbolic AI.

He graduated from the University of Toronto's PhD program in 2021, researching automated mathematical reasoning, symbolic AI, and enhancing large language models’ reasoning abilities. He then conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University.

During his doctoral studies, Wu interned at DeepMind and OpenAI. Later, he joined Google's N2Formal team, working on building “AI mathematicians.” He contributed to projects such as Minerva, AlphaGeometry, and Autoformalization, focusing on enabling AI to develop stronger mathematical comprehension and proof abilities.

On February 18 last year, during the live launch of Grok-3—called “the smartest AI on Earth” by Musk—Wu Yuhuai sat beside Musk.

(Screenshot from Grok-3 live stream in 2025, Tony Wu second from right)

In benchmark tests, Grok-3 outperformed Gemini-2 Pro, GPT-4o, and DeepSeek-V3 in mathematics, scientific reasoning, and coding tasks. Analysis suggests these achievements are closely tied to Wu Yuhuai’s technical contributions.

Talent Drain Amid Mergers and Integrations

Wallstreetcn reports that Musk announced the acquisition of xAI by his rocket company, SpaceX, which may signal an impending large-scale IPO for xAI.

This transaction raised SpaceX’s valuation to $1 trillion and xAI's valuation to $250 billion.

Tesla CEO Musk co-founded xAI in 2023 with 11 other people, aiming to compete with rivals like OpenAI and Google. According to the company’s website at the time, xAI’s stated goal was “to understand the true nature of the universe.”

Analysts believe the ongoing talent drain poses challenges to xAI’s technological development and market competitiveness—especially as competition in the AI field intensifies. The departure of core tech personnel could affect the company’s product iteration and innovation capabilities.

Risk Notice and DisclaimerThe market involves risks; investment should be approached cautiously. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it consider individual users’ specific investment goals, financial situation, or needs. Users should decide whether the opinions, views, or conclusions in this article suit their particular circumstances. Investments made accordingly are at the user’s own risk.