After xAI
- 8%Founded something5
- 16%Joined a startup10
- 28%Joined a big company17
- 48%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave xAI most often go to OpenAI, Meta and Thinking Machines Lab. Of them, 8% found something next and 16% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 11m
Not xAI's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 225 people on a map of 67,181, No. 103 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 2250.3% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 15971% of the people here
- Moved on
- 6629% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 11mmiddle half 8m to 1y 4m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for OpenAI (18% of recorded departures).
71 of 214 recorded arrivals shown, 143 more from 111 other companies31 of 61 recorded departures shown, 30 more to 28 other companies
How long people stay
55%<1y
37%1-2y
8%2-4y
1%4-7y
0%7y+
224 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3014
3015
<3<316
<3017
0<318
0419
0020
0021
<3022
3023
40324
1262325
483326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2014 to 2026: 225 joined, 66 left.
Caliber
85mediantop 10%95
0Eng Scorer caliber, 131 scored99
there now 85 moved on 84. Current staff and alumni score about the same.
Titles held here
- Member of Technical Staff179
- Software Engineer7
- AI Tutor6
- Investor4
4 most common titles, by people who held them.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 9%Exceptional12 people
- 34%Strong44 people
- 26%Solid34 people
- 16%Emerging21 people
- 15%Unproven20 people
131 of the 225 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
56 of the 131 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 43%. A tier is the band a caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
12%Titles that rose9 of 78 classified people
- 12%Rose9 people
- 65%Stayed level51 people
- 23%Fell18 people
78 of the 225 people here had a title that could be placed on the ladder before and after.
A title rose when the last title recorded here sits higher on the ladder than the first. For someone with one title here who then left, it's measured against the first title of their next role. The ladder runs intern, junior, mid, senior, staff or manager, principal, director, VP, then founder or C-level. Titles that match no rung are left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely as a different ladder. What's left leans towards people who have left: someone still here on one recorded title has nothing to measure against.
Where they studied
- Stanford15.6%
- UC Berkeley12.9%
- UIUC7.6%
- Carnegie Mellon5.8%
- Georgia Tech4.4%
- Columbia4.0%
- Penn4.0%
- MIT3.1%
The 8 most listed schools among the 225 people here with a school on file.
35 of the 225 people here with a school on file list Stanford, 29 list UC Berkeley and 17 list UIUC. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
40%have a public GitHub account on their profile
90 of the 225 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
91% of the people who have worked at xAI and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
xAI
Everyone on the map
- 91%SF Bay Area204 · map 41%
- 6%New York14 · map 18%
- 3%Somewhere else7
All 225 people who worked at xAI list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at xAI: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside xAI, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 225 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at xAI: 159 are there now, 66 have moved on.
- Most leave for OpenAI: 11 people, 18% of recorded departures. Then Meta and Thinking Machines Lab.
- Most arrive from Meta: 16 people. Then Google and Microsoft.
- Median tenure at xAI: 11m, middle half 8m to 1y 4m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after xAI, 8% went to a founder title next, 16% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 28% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 85 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 131 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Member of Technical Staff, then Software Engineer.
- Top school: Stanford, listed by 35 of the 225 people here with one on file (15.6%). Then UC Berkeley (29).
- 91% of the 225 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 40% of the 225 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 9 rose, 51 stayed level, 18 fell, out of the 78 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder before and after.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
Worked at xAI? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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