xAI’s legal chief steps down after whirlwind year

Robert Keele mentioned this week that he has stepped down as xAI’s head of authorized after simply over a 12 months, saying he needs to spend extra time along with his youngsters. In his announcement, Keele additionally acknowledged “daylight between our worldviews” with boss Elon Musk, who hasn’t commented on Keele’s exit.

“I really like my two toddlers and I don’t get to see them sufficient,” Keele wrote, posting the information on each X and LinkedIn. Regardless of calling his time on the AI startup “unimaginable” and dealing with Musk “the journey of a lifetime,” he mentioned he couldn’t preserve “using two horses without delay — the household and the job.”

Keele’s information prompted an outpouring of assist on social media from xAI colleagues in addition to dad and mom. When he joined xAI in Could 2024 as its first authorized head, he had simply launched his personal, very short-lived fractional authorized outfit. “Keele Regulation had an excellent run (~3 weeks!), however I couldn’t move up a possibility to run authorized at xAI,” he wrote on the time, calling himself “past stoked, and insanely fortunate.”

Keele arrived simply earlier than xAI introduced an enormous $6 billion Collection B funding spherical in Could 2024, backed by heavy hitters like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, valuing the corporate at $24 billion. Quickly after, xAI started experiencing speedy progress and, in March of this 12 months, acquired X, Musk’s social media firm, in a deal that, mentioned Musk on the time, valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion.

Earlier than his entrepreneurial stint, Keele had been head of authorized at autonomous plane maker Elroy Air and basic counsel at Airbus’s Silicon Valley innovation middle.

Taking on is Lily Lim, who, earlier than turning into a lawyer, was a rocket scientist at NASA, engaged on spacecraft navigation for the mission that mapped Venus’s floor. She joined xAI in late 2024 as a privateness and IP specialist after authorized stints at quite a few companies and corporations like ServiceNow.

Keele’s departure suits an ongoing sample of govt turnover throughout Musk’s empire. X CEO Linda Yaccarino left last month, and Tesla has misplaced a number of prime executives just lately. Musk — who additionally has quite a few longstanding lieutenants — brazenly expects workers to work lengthy hours, even when it means sleeping at the office, as occurred when he acquired X, previously Twitter.

Some newer corporations seem to have adopted an identical mentality to get forward of rivals, together with AI coding startup Cognition, which is seeking to aggressively shrink its staff. In reality, its CEO just lately informed workers in an e mail that he doesn’t consider in work-life balance.