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Why top talent is walking away from OpenAI and xAI | Equity Podcast

AI companies have been hemorrhaging talent the past few weeks. Half of xAI’s founding team has left the company — some on their own, others through “restructuring” — while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from the ⁠disbanding of its mission alignment team⁠ to the firing of a policy exec who opposed its “adult mode”…

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AI companies have been hemorrhaging talent the past few weeks. Half of xAI’s founding team has left the company — some on their own, others through “restructuring” — while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from the ⁠disbanding of its mission alignment team⁠ to the firing of a policy exec who opposed its “adult mode” feature.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s ⁠Equity⁠ podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into the week’s biggest deals and departures, from billion-dollar bets on fusion and robotics to the tech exodus reshaping AI companies.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:46 AI Super Bowl ads ⁠aren’t quite landing⁠ outside of Silicon Valley
04:31 Apptronik raises $935M for humanoid robotics
09:05 Will automakers partner with humanoid robotics startups?
13:05 Inertia Enterprises raises $450M for fusion energy
18:44 What the Epstein files reveal about ⁠Silicon Valley dealmaking⁠
30:56 The exodus at xAI and OpenAI, and what it means for the AI race
37:22 Outro
Subscribe to Equity on ⁠YouTube⁠,⁠ Apple Podcasts⁠,⁠ Overcast⁠,⁠ Spotify⁠ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on⁠ X⁠ and⁠ Threads⁠, at @EquityPod.

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3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. @NugentDubaele

    February 13, 2026 at 8:21 pm

    End-near believer here. Even I think Elon’s XA80B passes ETH/Bitcoin performance Q4/early 2026. Has it all.

    Reply

  2. @ichrisone

    February 14, 2026 at 1:51 pm

    Ouch! Who is going to compete with Anthropic? Just Google? Tangent here but this feels like classic unbridled Capitalism. 2 options at the end of the day for everything! 1 option better than communism. 😅. In reasoning that’s not much of a choice. False dilemma.

    Reply

  3. @seanmchugh2866

    February 14, 2026 at 8:57 pm

    white liberal woman, the word equity fixed to the top left of the video, claiming “talent” is leaving. …i’m not sure if i need to watch this video to get the message…

    Reply

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The future of wearable tech isn’t just on your wrist—it’s on your legs. In this hands-on look, we test the Dephy Sidekick, a consumer-powered bionic footwear system designed to give you a literal boost with every step. At $4,500, this powered ankle exoskeleton claims to offload your calves and make walking effortlessly easy.

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#exoskeletons #robotics #walkingaid

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Unboxing Belkin’s $50 Lilypad iPad Case

It may say 3+ but this one’s for the adults. 😅 And yes, this case did fit on the M3 iPad Air 🎉 #belkin #toystory5 #ts5 #lilypad #ipadcase Add CNET as a trusted news source Never miss a deal again! See CNET’s browser extension 👉 Check out CNET’s Amazon Storefront: Subscribe to CNET on YouTube:…

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It may say 3+ but this one’s for the adults. 😅 And yes, this case did fit on the M3 iPad Air 🎉 #belkin #toystory5 #ts5 #lilypad #ipadcase

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