Elon Musk's last remaining co-founder posts poignant image days before xAI exit is reported

Elon Musk’s final remaining co-founder of xAI has left the company, posting a poignant image online just days prior.

Ross Nordeen took to social media to share that he was ‘touching some grass’ amid the news surrounding the xAI and SpaceX merger.

Along with the post published to X, formerly Twitter, Nordeen shared an image of what appears to be a footpath in a forest.

This comes after the 12 other co-founders of the startup announced their departures from the company in recent weeks, and now it looks like Musk is the only one remaining.

Earlier this month, the tech mogul was forced to issue a public apology after he took to the internet to make a surprising admission about xAI.

Just weeks after the AI company merged with Musk’s other firm SpaceX, in a move which means they can both work as one system, the billionaire criticized xAI on X.

He wrote: “xAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up.

“Same thing happened with Tesla.”

Musk then followed up with another post which read: “Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview @xAI. My apologies.

“@BarisAkis and I are going through the company interview history and reaching back out to promising candidates.”

These tweets prompted responses from many other users who have shared their own thoughts and experiences with xAI.

One person said: “I wasn't declined, I was ghosted. Twice. interviewer no-showed both times, 1h+ wait each. If xAI wants top talent, it needs to treat candidates like their time matters.”

Another wrote: “Is Elon admitting xAI was a "failure" just to explain why half the founding team quit in the same week?”

A third person commented: “Many of us that applied never even got a courtesy letter.. I have 25 years of engineering experience.. I run circles around kids with degrees from Stanford.”

And a fourth added: “I was told that my profile is a great fit for the position I applied. I got invited for a 4 hour coding session in December 2025. But got rejected for no clear reason.”

One notable person who replied to Musk’s tweet was Zack Nelson, a YouTuber who is better known online as @JerryRigEverything, who said: “It's that bad eh.”

The content creator has been critical of Musk in the past, previously vowing to get rid of every single Tesla vehicle he owned.