xAI Co-Founder leaves, Musk looks to the moon & more (February 11, 2026)

Good morning,

AI’s talent wars, lunar ambitions, and workplace shakeups are colliding. From xAI turnover to Google’s internal reckoning, the pace isn’t slowing, it’s intensifying.

Let’s dive in 👇

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🚀 Talent, Turbulence & Moonshots

🧠 Nearly half of xAI’s founding team has now left the company

Nearly half of xAI’s founding team has departed since the company’s launch, raising questions about internal dynamics and long term execution. The exits include senior technical leaders who were instrumental in early model development and infrastructure decisions. For a company positioned as a direct challenger to OpenAI and Anthropic, sustained leadership churn could materially affect roadmap consistency and recruiting leverage.

🌕 Elon Musk’s plan for a lunar factory powered by AI

Elon Musk’s plan for a lunar factory outlines ambitions to manufacture high value materials in space using AI driven automation. The proposal ties into SpaceX’s broader lunar infrastructure goals and long term Mars strategy. While commercially distant, it signals Musk’s continued bet that AI plus robotics will unlock off Earth industrial capacity.

🇨🇳 China’s AI startup Zhipu releases new flagship model GLM-5

China’s AI startup Zhipu releases its latest foundation model, GLM-5, as domestic competition intensifies. The company claims performance gains across reasoning, multilingual tasks, and enterprise integrations. With U.S. export controls shaping chip access, Chinese labs are pushing model efficiency and local ecosystem dominance.

🏢 Work, Platforms & Power Shifts

🔎 Google asks employees to brace for big AI impact

Google asks employees to brace for significant restructuring as AI becomes core to every product line. The company is offering voluntary exits to workers not aligned with its AI first strategy. It reflects a broader industry reality, AI adoption is not additive, it is reorganizing labor and priorities.

📰 Amazon may launch a marketplace for media sites to sell content to AI companies

Amazon may launch a marketplace that allows publishers to directly license content to model developers. The move could formalize data pipelines that are currently negotiated privately or disputed legally. If executed, it positions Amazon as infrastructure between content owners and AI labs.

📈 AI doesn’t reduce work, it intensifies it

AI doesn’t reduce work, it intensifies it argues that productivity gains often translate into higher expectations and output demands. Instead of eliminating tasks, AI frequently raises performance baselines and accelerates decision cycles. For managers, this means rethinking incentives and workload design, not assuming headcount reductions.

🛠️ Tools of the Day

→ HappyCapy – AI powered short form video clipping and captioning tool for creators.
→ Revo AI – Automates business research and competitive analysis workflows.
→ Migma AI – Generates high converting email campaigns using AI personalization.

⚡ Quick Hits

→ Former GitHub CEO raises $60M seed at $300M valuation.
→ BBC reports on AI reshaping public sector services.
→ Olympics Czech duo skates to AI generated music.
→ Vega raises $120M for AI cyber defense.
→ Hauler Hero collects $16M for AI waste software.

🧾 TLDR

xAI is facing internal churn, while Musk is looking beyond Earth with AI powered lunar manufacturing. China’s Zhipu pushes forward with GLM-5 as global model competition intensifies. Meanwhile, Google is restructuring around AI, Amazon may formalize content licensing marketplaces, and research shows AI often amplifies work rather than reducing it.

Cheers,
David