Linda Yaccarino said on Wednesday that she’s stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s social platform X, wrapping up her two-year run at the top. She announced it through a post on X.
Yaccarino didn’t explain why she’s leaving, but her exit comes just a day after Musk’s AI chatbot Grok stirred controversy by making antisemitic remarks and bringing up Hitler while responding to posts about the Texas floods.
“When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company,” Yaccarino wrote in the post on X. “I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.”
READ: X to raise money at $44 billion valuation (February 20, 2025)
Responding to this, Elon Musk commented on that post, saying “Thank you for your contributions.”
Yaccarino joined X in 2023 after spending more than a decade leading NBCUniversal’s advertising division, where she built a strong reputation in the media industry. She stepped into the CEO role at a turbulent time for X, as major brands had pulled back on advertising following Elon Musk’s takeover.
Her main job at X was to handle the business side of things, especially working to win back advertisers as the platform went through major shake-ups—particularly around its safety rules and how it handles content.
READ: Elon Musk’s X gets new lease on life with $1 billion equity (March 20, 2025)
Under her leadership, X is now on track to grow its ad revenue in 2025—marking the platform’s first advertising rebound since 2021.
Yaccarino wishes the best saying, “Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with @xai.”
xAI is Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, launched in 2023 to compete with the likes of OpenAI and Google. It’s behind the Grok chatbot, which is built into X. Musk says the goal of xAI is to create AI that’s curious, honest, and rooted in understanding the universe.