CFO of Elon Musk’s xAI Departs After a Few Months on the Job, Report Says

Mike Liberatore, the chief financial officer of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI, left the company in July after serving only a few months in the role, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Liberatore, a former Airbnb executive who had been hired in April, had been involved in xAI’s recent fundraising efforts and its plans to build data centers in the greater Memphis area, according to people familiar with the matter. The reasons for his departure were not immediately clear.

The exit is the latest in a series of high-profile departures that have thinned executive ranks across companies tied to Musk. It occurred around the same time that Linda Yaccarino abruptly announced her resignation as chief executive of X, the social media service that became a subsidiary of xAI after Musk reorganized his businesses earlier this year. Yaccarino did not specify reasons for her July departure; her exit followed a period in which X temporarily disabled certain text-response features.

Musk, who frequently discusses his companies on the social platform X, had not publicly addressed Liberatore’s departure as of the report. Representatives for xAI and Liberatore did not immediately provide comment to the Journal, according to the report.

xAI has pursued capital and infrastructure development as it seeks to expand its capabilities in large-scale artificial intelligence. The firm has been linked to fundraising rounds and to plans for data centers in Tennessee, moves that would support greater computational capacity for training and deploying AI models.

The turnover comes as technology companies and startups in the AI space navigate rapid growth, talent competition and investor scrutiny. Executive churn at ventures associated with high-profile founders can affect continuity in fundraising and operations, though the immediate impact of Liberatore’s departure on xAI’s projects and financial plans has not been detailed publicly.

There was no immediate indication of an internal successor to the CFO role. The Journal report characterized the exit as part of broader changes at companies under Musk’s control but provided no further comment from current xAI executives. Additional reporting may clarify the firm’s leadership plans and the status of its fundraising and data center initiatives.