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Elon Musk has appointed former Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong as the new chief financial officer of his artificial intelligence group xAI, marking the latest shake-up to his executive ranks.
The financier, who advised on the Twitter takeover, has emerged as a key lieutenant to Musk in recent years, including during the billionaire’s time in Washington at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
He will head up the finance function for both xAI and social media platform X, according to several people familiar with the matter. Musk merged X and xAI in March, valuing the combined group at $113bn.
The change of CFO at xAI comes as Musk contends with a spate of senior departures across his businesses. Linda Yaccarino, chief executive of X, resigned in July. xAI’s general counsel Robert Keele and its previous CFO Mike Liberatore also left over the summer.
Armstrong has been working with xAI for several weeks and was formally appointed chief financial officer of the company in recent days, one of the people said.
His X account now carries an xAI logo by his name signifying that he is an employee of the company.
Armstrong and xAI did not respond to requests for comment.
Musk has doubled down on his bet on AI, racing to build sophisticated models to compete with the likes of OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind, while pouring investment into costly infrastructure to support those ambitions.
xAI has recently been discussing a new funding round that would value the company at around $200bn, according to investors in the group, who added that the round had not yet closed.
Armstrong will also be tasked with returning the social media business to financial health following an exodus of advertisers, after Musk relaxed its content moderation standards and told marketers who disagreed with his approach to “go fuck” themselves.
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As head of global technology mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, Armstrong was part of the team hired by Musk to facilitate the $44bn acquisition of X, then Twitter. Armstrong and Musk grew close as the deal, for which Morgan Stanley provided financing, was hashed out, the people said.
More recently, Armstrong worked for the Trump administration as a senior adviser to the Office to Personnel Management as Musk enacted his Doge cost-cutting efforts before falling out with President Donald Trump. Armstrong left the administration over the summer.
Armstrong will replace Liberatore as CFO, who defected to OpenAI after three months in the role. Liberatore left after clashing with some of Musk’s inner circle over corporate structure and tough financial targets, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Armstrong will also take up the duties of X’s chief financial officer Mahmoud Reza Banki, who is leaving after less than a year into the role, according to three people familiar with the matter. Banki did not respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by George Hammond in San Francisco
