80+ Staff Depart xAI in Year as Grok Search Lead Exits

Tianyi Zhang, who led xAI’s search and factuality post-training team, announced his departure from the company today (May 14). Over the past year, Zhang oversaw the development of Grok’s real-time search and Agent capabilities, serving as the core architect behind the system’s ability to retrieve accurate, real-time information from X platform data while preventing false outputs.

The departure marks the latest in a wave of departures from xAI. According to Fast Company, approximately 80 staff members have left the lab over the past year, including all initial co-founders except Elon Musk—notably Jimmy Ba, Tony Wu, and others. Several senior executives, including the CFO and infrastructure lead, have also recently exited.