Liberatore’s departure follows a wave of exits, including cofounder Igor Babuschkin (who left to start a VC firm focused on AI safety), General Counsel Robert Keele after one year, and senior lawyer Raghu Rao. xAI’s leadership is highly centralized under Musk, with no publicly disclosed independent board.
“Analysts point to Musk’s demanding, high-contact leadership style—managing up to 18 direct reports at once—as a key reason for the trend,” Morris said. “This pattern is visible not only at Tesla but also at X and xAI, suggesting structural factors rather than isolated events.”
He added that many executives leave rather than risk being blamed when new initiatives encounter regulatory hurdles: “Executives don’t want to become the ‘fall guy.’”
“In AI-focused companies, the very public failures of new large language models and uncertainty over true AI ROI can create an additional layer of finger-pointing, further upsetting leadership stability,” Heller said.
Robert Kelley, professor of management at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, explained that if top-level executives are continually leaving, “it’s a vote of no confidence in either the CEO, the board, or the strategy of the company.”
It’s unusual at startups for most executives to just walk away in a short period of time, Kelley said. Most people who join do so because they believe in the company and also think there’s going to be a big payoff, he explained.
To stem disruption, if a notable number of executives leave a company, transparent communication to customers and employees is key, Heller said.
And the CEO of the company should also “take a look in the mirror and ask the hard question, ‘Am I the problem?’” Kelley said.
