# Michael Nicholls, senior vice president of Starlink, has taken on the role of xAI president.

*genai · news · 2026-04-09 · Times of India*

## Key points

- SpaceX executive Michael Nicholls has become president of xAI amid major leadership changes.
- Nicholls admitted xAI is 'clearly behind' rivals and pledged urgent improvements in compute performance.
- A new xAI structure assigns specific leaders to model training, product, and infrastructure teams.
- Eight founding engineers and several senior leaders have left xAI since January, prompting Tesla and SpaceX staff deployment.
- Musk is rebuilding xAI from scratch and considering rehiring previously rejected candidates to strengthen the team.

**Companies:** SpaceX, Tesla, xAI, Cursor
**Countries:** United States

[Read the full story on Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/ahead-of-spacex-ipo-elon-musks-company-announces-another-reorganisation-of-xai/articleshow/130140903.cms)

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