With co-founders leaving and IPO looming, Elon Musk holds xAI all-hands on lunar ambitions

Elon Musk held an all-hands meeting with xAI employees on Tuesday night to discuss the future of the company and its plans involving the moon. The New York Times, which reported that it heard the meeting, said Musk told employees that xAI needs a lunar manufacturing facility. The facility on the moon would build AI satellites and launch them into space using a giant catapult. Musk said the move would help xAI harness more computing power than any rival. He added that it is difficult to imagine what an intelligence of that scale would think about but that it would be incredibly exciting to see it happen. Musk did not address how any of this would be built or how the company would reorganize the newly merged xAI SpaceX entity. The entity is heading toward an initial public offering. The meeting occurred amid recent departures by co-founders. On Monday night Tony Wu announced he was leaving. Less than a day later Jimmy Ba, who reported directly to Musk, said he was leaving as well. Six of xAI's 12 founding members have now left the company. The splits have been described as copacetic. Musk acknowledged that the company is in flux. He said some people are better suited for the early stages of a company and less suited for the later stages. He also said that xAI is moving faster than any other company. A SpaceX initial public offering is reportedly targeting a 1.5 trillion dollar valuation as soon as this summer.