Executives at xAl clashed with Musk advisers before departing

Some who left say they were concerned about the artificial intelligence company’s financial projections

- Alexander Saeedy & Berber Jin

Several executives at xAI left after clashing with two of Elon Musk's closest advisers over concern about the startup’s management and financial health, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those advisers, Jared Birchall and John Hering, oversee the day-to-day operations of xAI while Musk, as chief executive officer, makes final decisions. Some of xAI's executives voiced objections internally over how Birchall and Hering were trying to run the company on Musk’s behalf and felt there was no formal chain of command, the people said.

Some xAI executives said they left because they were concerned that some of the company’s financial projections were unrealistic, the people said. They also raised questions internally about the role Musk’s family office, Excession, played in managing some of xAI's cash and accounting.

“The suggestion that the financials are in any way improper is false and defamatory,” Alex Spiro, a lawyer representing Musk, said in an email. He said the financials are audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A person close to xAI said that it has full confidence in its projections.

A number of top executives have left XAI in recent months, including Linda Yaccarino, who was chief executive of X; Mike Liberatore; who was xAI's chief financial officer; Igor Babuschkin, a former Google research scientist who was one of Musk's first recruits to co-found xAI; and xAI's general counsel, Robert Keele.

The executive conflicts inside xAI showcase how Musk’s unorthodox approach to running companies is complicating his ambitions to build the world’s dominant AI company.