Musk-owned SpaceX acquires his xAI

 

Rocket venture SpaceX is acquiring artificial intelligence company xAI, the owner of both companies, Elon Musk announced on Monday.

SpaceX announced the deal, which is meant to support the efforts by Musk - the world's richest man - to dominate both the rocket and artificial intelligence markets.

A few of the most well-known products owned by Musk will play a part in the deal, including AI chatbot Grok, satellite company Starlink and his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

What's behind the SpaceX, xAI deal?

In a statement announcing the deal, Elon Musk said his goal is to create "the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth."

Musk has previously spoken about his aspirations to develop a technology to allow data centres to operate in space, and the merger could be a step to make developing such technology easier, with solar power being the source of energy.

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According to Musk, the electricity demands needed by AI computers cannot be met on Earth "without imposing hardship on communities and the environment". He argues that adding access to solar power will "transform our ability to scale compute."

Acquisition comes ahead of SpaceX public offering

While the statement announcing the deal did not reveal the financial terms behind it, business media outlet Bloomberg reported the merged company would be valued at US$1.25 trillion (roughly €1.06 trillion).

This comes ahead of a reported public offering planned by SpaceX in mid-June, which could raise as much as US$50 billion.

Musk was previously against a SpaceX IPO due to the public scrutiny of another company he owns, electric car maker Tesla, which is being publicly traded, while also claiming that the aspiration for financial gains stands against his goal of settling Mars.

The company's latest projects include developing Starship, the largest rocket ever built, with its purpose being missions to the Moon and Mars.

- Deutsche Welle