Inside xAI: Musk's war rooms, 300-person group chats, and a Grok release delayed over Baldur's Gate

Musk has become deeply involved in xAI's day-to-day operations over the past six months, running a massive 300-person group chat active at all hours, directing product changes, and launching intensive "war rooms" to accelerate development. In one instance, a Grok model release was delayed several days because Musk was dissatisfied with how the chatbot answered questions about the video game Baldur's Gate. The startup merged with SpaceX and lost two of its 12 original cofounders in the same month. Employees describe a constant "fire drill" environment as the company prepares for an expected IPO while racing to catch OpenAI and Anthropic.

View full digest for February 21, 2026