Elon Musk has merged his artificial intelligence company xAI into SpaceX, bringing two of his most important ventures under a single corporate structure. The deal, announced on Monday, further consolidates Musk's business empire as SpaceX prepares for a long-anticipated public offering later this year, with valuations expected to reach unprecedented levels.
Under the merger, SpaceX absorbs xAI's assets, including the Grok chatbot and the social media platform X. The company said the decision would accelerate plans to combine artificial intelligence with space-based infrastructure, including satellites capable of supporting direct-to-device communication and large-scale data processing beyond Earth.
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Musk has argued that the future growth of AI cannot rely solely on terrestrial datacenters, which demand enormous amounts of electricity and cooling. Space-based systems powered by solar energy, he claims, offer a long-term solution to the environmental and logistical limits of Earth-bound infrastructure. Therefore, the merger explicitly frames space as the next frontier for scaling AI technologies.
The deal follows a series of transactions that have increasingly intertwined Musk's companies, including Tesla's recent multibillion-dollar investment in xAI. While the merger strengthens SpaceX's position at the intersection of aerospace and artificial intelligence, it also comes amid heightened scrutiny of Musk's businesses, including the latest controversies surrounding AI content moderation...