Elon Musk’s AI company xAI, which includes Elon Musk’s social media platform X, has just been acquired by Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX.
The merging of all of Elon Musk’s “X” companies has now created a single entity with a valuation of $1.25 trillion. SpaceX has reportedly been planning to hold an initial public offering (IPO) later this year. The news of SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI was first reported by Bloomberg and then confirmed by SpaceX with a statement posted on its website on Monday.
“SpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform,” reads SpaceX’s statement. “This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!”
The statement makes reference to all of the products now under the SpaceX umbrella, including its satellite internet service Starlink.
Musk’s AI company xAI acquired the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in an all-stock transaction last March. The deal valued X at $33 billion, or $11 billion less than what Musk paid for then-Twitter in 2022.
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As Bloomberg points out, xAI, alongside its chatbot product Grok, spends around $1 billion each month in operation costs. The SpaceX merger helps pool each company’s resources.
In addition, the combination of SpaceX and xAI may also help move along Musk’s intent to put AI data centers in space. SpaceX made a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week seeking permission to launch “a million satellites” for the endeavor.
In the statement posted on the SpaceX website, Musk specifically made mention of the project when discussing the merger.
“In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale,” Musk said. “To harness even a millionth of our Sun’s energy would require over a million times more energy than our civilization currently uses! The only logical solution therefore is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space. I mean, space is called ‘space’ for a reason.”
Musk ended that statement with a cry laughing emoji.
