Elon Musk’s Finance Chief At X Confirms Exit Less Than A Year Into Role After Report Of New Hire

Mahmoud Reza Banki has stepped down as the chief financial officer of Elon Musk's social media platform X, less than a year into the role, according to the executive's LinkedIn post on Thursday.

"With the substantial improvements at X and the merger well on its way, my job is done here," Banki said in the post, referring to the merger of xAI, Musk's AI firm, and X in March this year.

During his time at the firm, Banki oversaw the refinancing of the company's $12.5 billion debt and spearheaded improvements in revenue, cost efficiency, and operations, he said.

"Those efforts dramatically improved the company's financials and cash flow, more than doubling the company's valuation leading to the merger," Banki wrote.

The development comes as xAI has reportedly hired Anthony Armstrong, a former Morgan Stanley banker and close aide of Musk, as the company's CFO. A Financial Times report stated that he would oversee finance operations at both xAI and X.

Changes at the firm's finance division are notable as Musk pursues a massive funding round, reportedly $20 billion, to fund AI development and infrastructure expansion at xAI.

In recent months, xAI has rapidly advanced Grok, its AI platform, with a host of new capabilities, positioning the company in direct competition with OpenAI and Google in the race for AI dominance.

Musk purchased X, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022, with a significant portion of the transaction funded through debt. He quickly fired over half of the workforce and launched a series of changes, both in the product and at the organizational level.

Notably, Musk has only just settled an unpaid severance suit from some of the top Twitter executives fired at the time, including then-CEO Parag Agrawal. X's CEO, Linda Yaccarino, stepped down in July.

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