Mike Liberatore, the chief financial officer of xAI has left the company, according to Wall Street Journal. Liberatore — who was formerly an executive for Airbnb — joined Elon Musk’s firm in April and left around the end of July.
Liberatore helped orchestrate xAI’s $5 billion debt raise, alongside another $5 billion in equity, around half of which came from Musk’s SpaceX. He also oversaw some of the expansion of the AI firm’s data center in Memphis.
Before joining xAI, Liberatore had spent eight years at Airbnb. He had also held senior finance roles at eBay, Paypal and SquareTrade. On LinkedIn, he describes himself as a “strategic finance business partner with a tireless work ethic,” who’s “comfortable going from zero to $10B+.”
READ: Linda Yaccarino steps down as the CEO of X (
This is the latest in a string of high profile exits from the company. Earlier, X CEO Linda Yaccarino had quit the company, wrapping up her two years in the position. This had come shortly after the firm landed in hot water over its chatbot Grok, which made antisemitic comments and brought up Hitler while responding to questions 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.” Shortly after stepping down, she landed another CEO role at telehealth company eMed, a departure from her usual fields of marketing, advertising, and media.
READ: Linda Yaccarino lands another CEO role after stepping down from Elon Musk’s X (
Earlier, xAI’s general counsel Robert Keele announced he too was stepping down, to spend more time with his two young children. “Working with Elon on this tech, at this time, was the adventure of a lifetime,” Keele wrote on LinkedIn last month. “Although there’s daylight between our worldviews, his vision, commitment, and smarts blew me away on the daily.” Days later, co-founder Igor Babushkin announced her would be leaving xAI as well, to launch his own venture capital firm focused on AI safety.
“I learned 2 priceless lessons from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency,” Babuschkin wrote in a lengthy post on X, to which Musk replied: “Thanks for helping build xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.” Meanwhile, Raghu Rao, a senior lawyer who oversaw commercial legal affairs for xAI, also quietly exited from the company this summer, according to the Journal.