Linda Yaccarino said Wednesday she is stepping down after two tumultuous years as CEO of X \u2013 a job made more complicated by Elon Musk\u2019s recent public feud with President Trump and his increased focus on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company,\u201d Yaccarino wrote in an X post. \u201cI\u2019m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former NBCUniversal advertising executive did not detail the reasons for her exit.<\/p>\n
Linda Yaccarino announced her exit as X CEO on Wednesday. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The departure was announced just hours after X was forced to disable text responses from its \u201cGrok\u201d AI chatbot<\/a> after it began referring to itself as \u201cMecha-Hitler\u201d and espousing pro-Nazi views.<\/p>\n One source close to the situation told The Post that Yaccarino\u2019s exit was in the works for over a week and was not related to the Grok meltdown.<\/p>\n \u201cShe got advertisers back and made it profitable again,\u201d the source said. \u201cFelt it was time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk gave Yaccarino a curt sendoff.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for your contributions,\u201d he wrote on X about an hour after her announcement.<\/p>\n Yaccarino, 61, had recently clashed with Reza Banki, who was hired as X\u2019s chief financial officer late last year and had pressured her about the company\u2019s spending, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a>, citing people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n Her son Matt Madrazo, an ad sales employee at X, showed up to work at the company\u2019s New York office on Wednesday despite his mother\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n Elon Musk and Yaccarino in April 2023, a month before she was hired. AP<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s awkward,\u201d Madrazo quipped, according to the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yaccarino was brought on board in 2023 and tasked with repairing X\u2019s relationship with the advertising industry \u2013 which fled the platform in droves due to concerns about Musk\u2019s move to ease content moderation practices after buying the site formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.<\/p>\n Musk slashed about three-fourths of the company\u2019s workforce since the acquisition. In March, he merged X with his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, which is responsible for building Grok.<\/p>\n The merger valued X at $33 billion and xAI at $80 billion \u2013 and prompted some speculation about Yaccarino\u2019s future at the combined entity.<\/p>\n The difference in valuations was a clear signal that xAI was viewed as more valuable to investors than Musk\u2019s X, which is more volatile due to its reliance on ad revenue.<\/p>\n Yaccarino was a vocal defender of Musk throughout her tenure \u2013 even publicly backing his decision to join the Trump administration as part of the Department of Government Efficiency. REUTERS<\/p>\n Yaccarino was a vocal defender of Musk throughout her tenure \u2013 even publicly backing his decision to join the Trump administration as part of the Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n When Musk lashed out and told advertisers who left X to \u201cgo f\u2014 yourself\u201d<\/a> in November 2023, Yaccarino jumped in to soften the blow, writing that he had expressed an \u201cexplicit point of view about our position.\u201d<\/p>\n She also took a brute force approach toward ad \u201cbrand safety\u201d firms that Musk accused of organizing a boycott that steered ad dollars away from X.<\/p>\n Under Yaccarino\u2019s leadership, X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit targeting the World Federation of Advertisers and a shadowy ad cabal known as the \u201cGlobal Alliance for Responsible Media initiative,\u201d or GARM.<\/p>\n X accused the WFA and GARM of coordinating a boycott that cost the site \u201cbillions of dollars in advertising revenue\u201d<\/a> under the guise of brand safety. Soon after the lawsuit was filed, GARM ceased operations entirely, citing escalating legal costs.<\/p>\n