xAI’s Legal Chief Steps Down After Challenging Year

This week, Robert Keele announced his resignation as the head of legal at xAI, where he has worked for just over a year. He expressed a desire to dedicate more time to his children. In his statement, he noted a “disconnect between our perspectives” with CEO Elon Musk, who has yet to reply to Keele’s decision.

“I cherish my two toddlers and feel I haven’t spent enough time with them,” Keele mentioned in his posts on X and LinkedIn. He described his tenure at the AI startup as “incredible,” calling his collaboration with Musk “the adventure of a lifetime,” but emphasized that he couldn’t juggle “two horses at once — family and career.”

Keele’s departure has garnered support on social media from xAI colleagues and fellow parents. He joined xAI as its first legal head in May 2024, shortly after starting a brief fractional legal practice. “Keele Law had a decent run (~3 weeks!), but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to lead legal at xAI,” he remarked at the time, reflecting his enthusiasm for the position.

Keele came on board just before xAI secured an impressive $6 billion Series B funding round in May 2024, attracting investments from prominent firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, which raised the company’s valuation to $24 billion. Shortly thereafter, xAI witnessed significant growth, highlighted by its acquisition of X, Musk’s social media platform, in March of this year, a deal that Musk claimed valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion.

Before launching his venture, Keele was the head of legal at Elroy Air, a company specializing in autonomous aircraft, and previously served as general counsel at Airbus’s innovation hub in Silicon Valley.

Lily Lim will take over Keele’s role; prior to her legal career, she was a rocket scientist at NASA, where she contributed to spacecraft navigation for the mission that mapped the surface of Venus. She joined xAI in late 2024 as an expert in privacy and intellectual property, bringing experience from various firms, including ServiceNow.

Keele’s resignation highlights a trend of executive turnover at Musk’s companies. Last month, X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down, and Tesla has also seen notable executive departures recently. Musk, known for his demanding work environment, has even encouraged employees to sleep at the office, as he did after acquiring X, formerly Twitter.

Some emerging companies appear to be adopting similar strategies to gain a competitive edge, such as the AI coding startup Cognition, which is currently reducing its workforce. Notably, its CEO recently informed employees via email that he does not endorse work-life balance.