xAI staff owed $420 bonus for tax data as manager departs
Employees provided personal tax returns to improve model capabilities ahead of the US deadline, but payments have stalled after the overseeing manager left the company.
xAI employees are reportedly owed a $420 bonus for submitting personal tax returns to help train the Grok artificial intelligence model, according to a report by Bloomberg. The payment was promised earlier in 2026 in exchange for the data, but the funds have not yet materialized.
The initiative was designed to enhance Grok’s capabilities ahead of the April 15 US tax deadline. While many Americans use AI chatbots for tax preparation, most prefer competitors such as Claude or ChatGPT. xAI sought to reverse this trend by incentivising data sharing, with managers offering the cash payment and early access to X Money, a long-delayed payments platform for the social network X.
Staffers provided completed tax filings and supporting documents from the current or previous year. However, months have passed without the promised compensation. Employees who inquired about the status of their payments discovered that the manager overseeing the initiative had departed the company.
The $420 figure references cannabis culture, a joke Musk has made previously. The amount also echoes a controversial 2018 tweet in which Musk claimed to have secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That post caused market disruption, leading to the temporary suspension of Tesla shares on the NASDAQ and securities fraud charges by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A jury later found Musk not liable for investor losses.
xAI has not responded to requests for comment regarding the unpaid bonuses. The report highlights ongoing questions about data privacy and compensation reliability within the firm as it competes in the AI market.
