Tech billionaire Elon Musk (54) owns the space company SpaceX and its AI developer xAI merged. The US entrepreneur is merging his rocket and satellite company with the developer of the chatbot Grok, as SpaceX announced on Monday. Sharing computing power, data and engineering knowledge will both accelerate AI development and support longer-term ambitions such as space-based data centers, it said. The Reuters news agency had already reported on Thursday about merger talks in advance of a major IPO planned for later this year.
The merger marks “not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: to scale to create a sentient sun, to understand the universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” Musk explained flowerily.
For Musk, it would not be the first merger of companies. He had already integrated Platform X into xAI in 2025. Musk’s electric car maker Tesla is also involved. He recently pledged an investment of two billion dollars in xAI.
The story of data centers in space…
Together, the companies will, among other things, build data centers in space, as Musk announced. He estimates that in two to three years this will be the cheapest way to generate computing power for artificial intelligence, he wrote in a blog post.
Initially, the deal will allow Musk to supply xAI with billions from SpaceX’s coffers. The AI company has a high level of capital wear – and strong competitors, among others Google and ChatGPT inventor OpenAI.
… and money for xAI
SpaceX and most recently the electric car manufacturer Tesla, which is also run by Musk, have already invested two billion dollars in xAI in financing rounds and received investments in return.
According to The Information website, SpaceX cost $250 billion to acquire xAI. There was no official information about this. The combined space and AI supercompany should be valued at a total of $1.25 trillion, the financial service Bloomberg previously wrote. Musk was already the boss of both SpaceX and xAI.
The SpaceX rocket Starship, which can bring larger loads into orbit, is expected to play a key role in the construction of data centers in space. Musk spoke of hourly launches of the Starship rockets, each with a payload of 200 tons. This will launch millions of tons of technology. According to Musk’s already known ideas, such data centers should get their electricity from solar energy – while on earth nuclear power is currently being expanded again in the USA.
Factories on the moon could benefit from resources there and build satellites that could be placed even deeper in space, Musk wrote. In its company network, Tesla is working on humanoid robots, which, according to Musk’s narrative, should also be usable under adverse conditions in the future.
Musk has been announcing for many years that he wants to colonize Mars. So far, Starship has only made test flights – not all of which were successful. SpaceX and xAI are both unlisted companies, which makes a merger easier.
SpaceX has been virtually indispensable to the US space program for years. According to previous information, Musk holds a stake of around 40 percent in the company.
xAI controversy
xAI is developing the chatbot Grok, which Musk sent into the race with, among other things, ChatGPT. Grok is currently being criticized because the software could be used to depict women in bikinis or lingerie. After authorities took action, xAI restricted the ability to do so.
More on the topic
The development, training and operation of artificial intelligence require enormous resources. OpenAI, its competitor Anthropic and tech heavyweights such as Google and the Facebook group Meta together want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the expansion of data centers.