• by Colin Kirkland , March 24, 2025

Haofei Wang, the director of engineering at X, has left the social-media company “suddenly,” according to a report by The Verge.

Wang joined X in July 2023 as a key player at the company, serving as a bridge between X owner Elon Musk and the larger team of engineers.

Lately, Wang has acted as X's lead of engineering and product, as Musk has allocated more of his time to his role as head of U.S. President Trump's DOGE initiative, as well as xAI.

The Verge did not cite a reason for Wang's departure, as neither he nor a company spokesperson has yet to respond to a request for comment.

However, Wang's departure highlights a recent trend at X.

Last week, X's communications chief Dave Heinzinger left the company after only three months, following the departure of Joe Benarrach, who led X's media and communications efforts until this past June, as well as the exit of X's head of global affairs Nick Pickles in September.

CEO Linda Yaccarino is attempting to rebuild X's communications and marketing teams after Musk depleted both departments following his 2022 takeover of the company. 

Hundreds of engineers quit X in 2022 after Musk demanded that they agree to “extremely hardcore” work.

In February 2023, Musk fired an engineer in response to the X owner's own declining view count.

X continues to hire new engineers as well, recently bringing on xAI tech leads, Mike Dalton and Uday Ruddaraju in January.

While Musk's growing attention to DOGE and xAI has potentially distracted him from X, the billionaire's political influence has attracted new funding for X. Last week, the company announced $1 billion in new equity, which X will likely use to pay down its debt.

The funding brought the company's value up to $32 billion, which is still $12 billion less than the amount Musk originally purchased it for.