What happened to xAI's co-founders?

All 11 of xAI's original co-founders had departed the company by May 2026, beginning in earnest in February when Tony Wu, described as one of the most operationally central co-founders, announced his resignation. The company is on its 'third restart' following these departures.

Why did the U.S. government pull Anthropic's Fable and Mythos models?

The U.S. government issued an export control order on June 11th suspending all foreign national access to the two models. According to Fortune reporting, the trigger was Amazon CEO Andy Jassy raising the alarm about a discovered jailbreak in the Fable 5 model—a vulnerability that Anthropic itself had been working to address.

What does Hoffman say about Cursor after SpaceX acquired it?

Hoffman said Cursor 'seems to have had its bright star some number of months ago and seems to be fading over the horizon,' noting that it has faced mounting pressure since early 2026 as Claude Code and Codex have gained ground, with developers increasingly questioning whether a standalone coding IDE still commands a premium.

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Reid Hoffman criticizes SpaceX's AI strategy as 'buying your way into relevance' and calls xAI a 'complete train wreck,' while raising alarm over the U.S. government's unilateral suspension of Anthropic's Fable and Mythos models.

Fortune AI7h ago6 min read

Key takeaway

Reid Hoffman, a prominent investor in both OpenAI and Anthropic, has called SpaceX's AI strategy inauthentic acquisition-driven growth rather than genuine AI capability, and criticized xAI as a 'complete train wreck' that has lost all its original co-founders. More significantly, he raised alarms about the U.S. government's June 11th suspension of Anthropic's Fable and Mythos models as an export control order, arguing the move was 'autocratic willy-nilly' and creates unpredictable regulatory risk for a company preparing a major IPO.

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3 Key Points

What happened
LinkedIn co-founder and investor in both Anthropic and OpenAI Reid Hoffman said on the Pioneers of AI podcast that SpaceX is not an AI company but rather a 'premium-priced CoreWeave' leasing infrastructure, and that xAI—which has lost all 11 of its original co-founders and is on its 'third restart'—is a 'complete train wreck' for building foundational models. He also called SpaceX's acquisition of Cursor coding tool evidence of AI absence, not capability, comparing the strategy to a roll-up conglomerate.
Why it matters
Hoffman's assessment matters because he speaks from the vantage point of a founder, board member at Microsoft, and investor in multiple AI companies—making his skepticism a substantive critique rather than outside commentary. His alarm about the U.S. government forcing Anthropic to pull its Fable and Mythos models on June 11th as an export control order suggests unpredictable regulatory intervention poses a concrete investor risk, especially as Anthropic prepares for a major IPO. The asymmetry—Anthropic penalized while OpenAI was not—undermines confidence in rule-of-law governance of AI policy.
What to watch
Hoffman argued there is room for both OpenAI and Anthropic to win, positioning them in distinct competitive lanes: Anthropic strong in code and expanding into design and legal, while OpenAI functions more like a consumer search front-end. He also flagged whether Cursor, now owned by SpaceX, has 'already peaked,' noting it 'seems to be fading over the horizon' as Claude Code and Codex have gained ground since early 2026.

FAQ

What happened to xAI's co-founders?: All 11 of xAI's original co-founders had departed the company by May 2026, beginning in earnest in February when Tony Wu, described as one of the most operationally central co-founders, announced his resignation. The company is on its 'third restart' following these departures.
Why did the U.S. government pull Anthropic's Fable and Mythos models?: The U.S. government issued an export control order on June 11th suspending all foreign national access to the two models. According to Fortune reporting, the trigger was Amazon CEO Andy Jassy raising the alarm about a discovered jailbreak in the Fable 5 model—a vulnerability that Anthropic itself had been working to address.
What does Hoffman say about Cursor after SpaceX acquired it?: Hoffman said Cursor 'seems to have had its bright star some number of months ago and seems to be fading over the horizon,' noting that it has faced mounting pressure since early 2026 as Claude Code and Codex have gained ground, with developers increasingly questioning whether a standalone coding IDE still commands a premium.

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