Musk sees another top exec depart X

X’s advertising chief, John Nitti, has left his position less than a year after joining the company.

Nitti was appointed as global head of revenue operations and advertising innovation in January 2025, and his departure comes just after ten months, according to the Financial Times (FT).

He played a key role in shaping the platform’s ad strategy and was once considered a potential successor to former CEO Linda Yaccarino.

Yaccarino, 61, resigned from the role after two years at X, with her duties split between several execs, like Angela Zepeda, global head of marketing, and Nitti. At the time, some analysts speculated that Yaccarino may have left as "a result of a lack of fit between her approach and Elon Musk's style.”

The announcement adds to a string of high-profile departures from X, including xAI’s chief financial officer, Mike Liberatore, who left after three months in the role, later followed by xAI’s general counsel, Robert Keele.

The FT has also previously reported that X’s chief financial officer, Mahmoud Reza Banki, announced his leave from the role in early October, after less than a year.

HR turmoil at the company is reportedly a sign of deeper tensions. The FT suggests that execs, including Nitti, have grown increasingly frustrated with Musk over his approach to the advertising business.

While he was first occupied with his role in Trump’s administration at the beginning of the year, Musk has since refocused his attention on X, “making unilateral decisions” without consulting its advertising leadership. One of such “frustrating” decisions included banning hashtags from advertising on X, one of the sources told the FT.

Things are similar at Tesla, where Musk’s confidant Omead Afshar and North America HR director Jenna Ferrua left the company.

The news comes as advertising leadership faces more pressure amid Musk’s AI race, with the plans to create a new AI company called Macrohard, which will leverage xAI’s Colossus 2 supercomputer in Memphis.