On Monday, Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX bought his AI firm xAI, whose most notable contribution to humankind has been enabling the mass digital undressing of women and children with its chatbot Grok. The acquisition, according to the New York Times, creates the most valuable private company in the world, with Bloomberg reporting a total valuation of an eye-watering $1.25 trillion.
“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,” Musk wrote in a memo, as quoted by the NYT.
In a wide-ranging announcement posted by Musk and stuffed with sci-fi rhetoric, the billionaire highlighted the company’s ambition to put orbital data centers in space and waxed philosophical on how this mission would help humanity ascend the Kardashev scale, understand the universe, and “extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”
Musk explained that space-based AI was the “only way to scale” the technology in the long-term because of the vast amounts of solar energy that could be harvested — or, as Musk further expounded, because “space is called ‘space’ for a reason. 😂.” Not one to hedge his ambitions, he also compared his goal of populating the earth’s orbit with AI satellites to building a “sentient sun.”
The acquisition comes after reports that Musk was considering taking SpaceX public at a valuation of $1.5 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO in history. The upward trajectory of the company’s valuation has been notably rapid. Last summer, SpaceX’s private valuation was at $400 billion. In December, it doubled to $800 billion. With talks of an IPO, it nearly doubled yet again. xAI, meanwhile, was last valued at $230 billion.
It remains unclear what SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI could mean for a potential conversion into a publicly traded company, but a Bloomberg source familiar with the acquisition said the company is still expecting to hold the IPO later this year.
The move is also the latest instance of how Musk has been pivoting his businesses towards AI. His social media site X merged with xAI last year, and has become a playground for his notoriously foul-mouthed chatbot Grok, which last month was used to generate tens of thousands of AI nudes of women and children. At his automaker Tesla, Musk has taken a hard turn towards building autonomous AI-powered machines, including humanoid robots and robotaxis — while killing off its flagship cars.
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