Quick overview

---

Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and xAI in a deal that values the combined company at $1.25 trillion in an attempt to finance his increasingly expensive aspirations in artificial intelligence and space exploration. Musk signed a statement on SpaceX’s website announcing the acquisition of xAI.

According to people familiar with the situation, the deal values xAI at $250 billion and SpaceX at $1 trillion. According to some of the people who spoke earlier, employees received a memo on Monday announcing the combined company’s valuation.

SpaceX announced that it had 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.”

Two of the biggest, closely held corporations are joining forces in this deal. While SpaceX was scheduled to proceed with a share sale in December at a valuation of roughly $800 billion, XAI raised capital in January at a $230 billion.

According to Musk’s statement outlining the deal’s justification, the least expensive AI calculations in two to three years will be in space.

He wrote, “This cost-efficiency alone will enable innovative companies to advance in training their AI models and processing data at unprecedented speeds and scales, accelerating breakthroughs in our understanding of physics and invention of technologies to benefit humanity.”. According to a filing made on Friday, SpaceX is asking for authorization to launch up to a million satellites into Earth’s orbit for the project. Musk’s numerous business endeavors are further entangled in the offering. In late 2022, the billionaire bought Twitter, renamed it X, and combined the two websites.