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Elon Musk’s xAI loses second cofounder in 48 hours

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XAI cofounder Jimmy Ba said he left Elon Musk’s startup on Tuesday.

“It’s time to recalibrate my gradient on the big picture. 2026 is gonna be insane and likely the busiest (and most consequential) year for the future of our species,” Ba wrote on X.

Ba reported directly to Musk. He ran a large portion of the company until late last year, when several of his responsibilities were split between two other cofounders, Tony Wu and Guodong Zhang, people with knowledge of the move told Business Insider.

Ba also previously ran the team that oversaw more than a thousand AI tutors, according to an org chart from earlier last year. That role was given to Diego Pasini in September, Business Insider previously reported.

Ba is the second cofounder to depart the company in less than 48 hours. Wu announced he’d resigned from the AI startup on Monday night. Wu’s Slack account was deactivated shortly before the announcement, Business Insider previously reported.

Ahead of Wu’s departure, xAI underwent another restructuring, and several of his responsibilities were shifted under Zhang.

Musk launched the AI company in 2023 with 11 other founders. Six have now left the company — five of them within the last year.

In addition to his work at xAI, Ba is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto in the computer science department. He received his Ph.D. from the school while studying under Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the “godfather of AI.”

Musk has said he built xAI as an alternative to what he’s called “woke” chatbots, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Over the past year, the company has become known for pushing the envelope. Last July, xAI launched a sexy digital avatar called “Ani,” and its Grok chatbot went on an antisemitic rant.

Most recently, xAI has come under fire after Grok began generating nonconsensual sexual images of real people in response to X user prompts. The backlash eventually prompted the company to restrict Grok’s image-generation features on X.

Last week, Musk announced that xAI would merge with his rocket company, SpaceX. The company is reportedly gearing up for an initial public offering this year that could value SpaceX at $1.5 trillion.

Ba and xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Do you work for xAI or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gkay@businessinsider.com or Signal at 248-894-6012. Use a personal email address, a nonwork device, and nonwork WiFi; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




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Tesla loses another sales executive

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Raj Jegannathan, who was once tasked with managing Tesla’s sales and service team in North America, announced his departure from the company on Monday.

Jegannathan, Tesla’s vice president of IT, took over the sales organization shortly after Troy Jones, the former vice president of North America sales and service, left the company in July. During his time on the team, Jegannathan worked to incorporate more AI tools in sales and service team workflows, five people with knowledge of the issue told Business Insider.

“A comprehensive end-to-end understanding of the business has been essential—enabling the team to harness AI effectively to achieve meaningful outcomes across products and customer support,” Jegannathan wrote on LinkedIn on Monday.

The executive, who reported directly to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, left the company over the weekend, a person with knowledge of the issue told Business Insider. Jegannathan has not been active on internal company systems since late January, and he has not worked closely with the sales team for a few months, people with knowledge of the issue said.

Prior to taking over leadership of the sales team, Jegannathan worked in engineering and IT, rather than sales. He has worked at Tesla for over 13 years. Shortly after he took the reins, he became known for responding to sales and service requests on X.

Jegannathan has led the company through a tumultuous sales period. Tesla reported in January that its delivery numbers fell for the second year in a row. The carmaker reported a 16% year-over-year decline in deliveries during the quarter. Jegannathan led the sales efforts while Musk worked with the federal government as a part of the Department of Government Efficiency, before the organization was dismantled.

Several of Musk’s direct reports have left the company over the past year. One of Musk’s top lieutenants, Omead Afshar, parted ways with the carmaker in June, and Milan Kovac, the head of Tesla’s robotics division, left the company that same month.

Tesla and Jegannathan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider

Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gkay@businessinsider.com or Signal at 248-894-6012. Use a personal email address, a nonwork device, and nonwork WiFi; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




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Divya Nettimi’s Avala Global loses more staff despite a strong 2025

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Avala Global, launched by former Viking Global star trader Divya Nettimi, had strong performance numbers in 2025.

However, the firm has continued to lose staff.

Three investment analysts left in the second half of 2025, and Nettimi’s fund is set to lose two more senior executives in 2026, including the firm’s COO.

Avala Global, the $2 billion manager launched by Nettimi in late 2022, gained 22.1% in 2025, according to the firm’s year-end letter to clients, which was viewed by Business Insider. Several people close to the firm told Business Insider that the manager achieved these returns despite losing analysts Jordan Straff, Nadine Lin, and Michael Wang.

Straff was a longtime investor at Roberto Mignone’s Bridger Capital before joining Avala in early 2024, while Lin and Wang both joined from Steve Cohen’s Point72.

The manager will also lose its COO, David Angstreich, and top fundraiser, Rebecca Chia. Both are set to depart in the coming months, three people close to the firm tell Business Insider.

Angstreich and Lin did not respond to requests for comment, while Chia and Straff declined to comment. Business Insider could not reach Wang in time for publication. Avala declined to comment.

Angstreich has been with Avala since its launch, while Chia joined in mid-2025 after stints at Atalaya Capital and Third Point.

The letter highlighted the team’s “depth and experience” but made no mention of the departures or expected exits. The firm hired onetime Viking Global general counsel Andrew Genser as its in-house lawyer last year and added at least four new analysts in 2025, LinkedIn shows, including two end-of-year hires from private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice.

“We believe we have laid a strong foundation for the next phase of our growth,” the letter reads.

Last June, Business Insider reported that a majority of Avala’s day-one team had left the firm, including the entire four-person investing team that reported to Nettimi. Three people who had previously worked at the firm told Business Insider they left because of a tense workplace environment that came from the top of the firm. While she declined to address the specifics around different employees’ exits, Nettimi told Business Insider last year that she was confident in her team and the process for finding and vetting new talent.

Nettimi, a former Forbes 30 under 30 honoree who spent years investing at Viking Global, has managed to make money despite the churn. The firm has made more than 20% in each of the three full years it has been trading, besting the S&P 500 and Nettimi’s former manager over the same period.

The firm’s most recent letter to investors stated that long-term holdings in stocks such as data-storage company Seagate Technology, German power company Siemens Energy, and Finnish sporting goods conglomerate Amer Sports were key in driving performance last year.




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