xAI reshuffles leadership with Indian-origin executives as SpaceX IPO plans take shape

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI is undergoing a leadership reshuffle as it prepares for closer integration with SpaceX ahead of a potential public listing. The development was first reported by Business Insider, which noted that the company is trying to fix gaps in its AI capabilities while competing with more established players.

As part of the changes, several Indian-origin professionals have moved into key roles across the organisation. Devendra Chaplot, who previously worked at Meta and Thinking Machines Lab, will lead pre-training efforts. This stage is critical in building AI models, as it involves training systems on large datasets spanning text, images and code. 

Aman Madaan will oversee what the company calls its “model factory”, which includes infrastructure, data pipelines and training workflows. These systems form the backbone of how AI models are built, tested and deployed. Meanwhile, Aditya Gupta will handle post-training and reinforcement learning, which focuses on refining models after their initial training phase. 

The restructuring follows SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI earlier this year, bringing the AI firm under its umbrella as part of a broader strategy that links artificial intelligence with space-based infrastructure. The combined entity is expected to be central to SpaceX’s planned IPO, which could value the company at over $2 trillion. 

Push to catch up in AI race 

The leadership changes come at a time when xAI is trying to close the gap with rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. According to Business Insider, internal assessments have flagged weaknesses in compute infrastructure and early model development, prompting a more aggressive rebuild. 

SpaceX executive Michael Nicolls has taken on a larger role in guiding xAI through this transition. The approach reflects a broader pattern seen in Musk-led companies, where teams are reorganised quickly to address performance issues and accelerate product development.

The shake-up also follows a period of exits at the company, including several co-founders, even as new leadership is brought in from across SpaceX and the wider tech ecosystem. 

Overall, the restructuring signals a reset at xAI as it prepares for a larger role within SpaceX’s ecosystem. The focus now is on improving core technology and scaling operations in time for the expected IPO, where AI is likely to be positioned as a key growth driver.