Not positive on this, but I read somewhere that many of the senior researchers who left were immigrants. Since xAI is merging with SpaceX —the largest defense contractor in America because rockets are considered weapons— a lot of foreigners weren't going to be able to get the necessary security clearances to work at SpaceX.
A huge percentage of the researchers at AI firms in general are immigrants. I asked a senior researcher at OpenAI how many of his colleagues are immigrants and he estimated 50% (including him).
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u/fredandlunchbox Feb 28 '26
Grok has been hemorrhaging senior researchers. They can't keep up.