Marko Elez, Who Left DOGE Amid Social Media Controversy, Labored at XAI

• DOGE staffer Marko Elez was listed as an worker on xAI’s inside database as of final week.
• Elez resigned from DOGE after being linked to controversial social media posts. Musk promised to rehire him.
• Elez labored for X and SpaceX. His employment at xAI was beforehand unreported.

Marko Elez, who resigned from and was then rehired on the Division of Authorities Effectivity, lately labored for Elon Musk’s xAI agency.

Elez beforehand labored as an engineer for 2 different Musk corporations, SpaceX and X, in response to an archived model of his LinkedIn profile. The archived profile didn’t point out working at xAI.

Based on an xAI group chart considered by Enterprise Insider final week, Elez was listed as an “energetic” worker. Elez started working on the AI startup on October 2, 2024, and his function was listed as “X Corp Accomplice.” (X Corp is the identify of the corporate that owns the social media web site X.) He was positioned throughout the division “xAI Accomplice,” which has 5 members, in response to the interior group chart.

It is unclear what the enterprise unit does. xAI has constructed a Grok chatbot for X and shares a knowledge middle in Atlanta with the social media firm, in response to public data considered by BI.

Elez sat two ranges under cofounder Igor Babuschkin on the xAI org chart. Babuschkin experiences on to Musk, the CEO of the corporate.

The org chart doesn’t say the precise employment standing of Elez or any xAI workers, solely that he was energetic within the firm. It is unclear how lately xAI has up to date its org chart.

xAI declined to touch upon Elez’s employment standing on the firm. Inside 4 days after BI contacted the corporate for remark, Elez’s xAI e-mail account stopped working.

When emails have been despatched to Elez’s xAI tackle on February 14, they have been delivered. A follow-up e-mail despatched on Tuesday bounced again with the message “the e-mail account that you simply tried to succeed in is inactive.”

The 25-year-old Elez made headlines earlier this month after The Wall Avenue Journal reported on Elez’s since-deleted social media account with inflammatory posts comparable to “I used to be racist earlier than it was cool.”

Elez resigned from his authorities function after the Journal contacted authorities officers for remark. He was one in all two Musk recruits who had labored throughout the US Treasury Division. DOGE’s entry to the central Treasury fee has sparked a lawsuit from 19 Democratic state attorneys common.

The day after the Journal article was revealed and Elez resigned, Musk stated on X that he deliberate to rehire Elez. Elez seems to have a working e-mail tackle with the White Home DOGE workplace; a message despatched to that account on Tuesday afternoon was delivered however didn’t obtain a response.

Musk has been identified to maneuver employees between his corporations. When the billionaire took over Twitter in 2022 he introduced in dozens of Tesla engineers to help. xAI has additionally employed a number of former Tesla workers. Staff from a number of of Musk corporations have joined the DOGE effort, together with The Boring Firm and SpaceX.

Brent Griffiths, Jack Newsham, and Eliza Relman contributed reporting.

Do you’re employed for one in all Musk’s corporations or have a tip? Attain out to the reporter utilizing a non-work e-mail and system at gkay@businessinsider.com or through the encrypted messaging platform Sign at 248-894-6012.