
Inside Elon Musk’s $1.25 trillion AI and space megamerger
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Elon Musk took a gulp of water on stage at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last month and started talking up one of his latest passions: data centers orbiting Earth. “The lowest-cost place to put AI will be space," Musk said.
“That will be true within two years, maybe three." Behind the scenes, the groundwork was already under way for a megamerger of SpaceX and xAI—his artificial-intelligence startup—intended to make the sci-fi vision a reality. Within days, bankers from Morgan Stanley provided an estimated valuation of both companies that could be used to structure a merger, according to people familiar with the matter and investor disclosures viewed by The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX’s board decided as of Jan.
30 the company was worth $1 trillion, and xAI’s board decided it was worth $250 billion, the documents show. SpaceX and xAI signed a merger agreement creating a $1.25 trillion company on Jan. 31.
The deal closed two days later, making it the biggest corporate tie-up by value in American history. The merger follows a busy year in dealmaking for Musk, from the combination of his social-media company X and xAI to Tesla’s $2 billion investment in the AI firm. It also promises a windfall for investors in xAI.
The billionaire entrepreneur has envisioned making xAI’s Grok the most popular artificial intelligence in the world, and building out its capabilities requires a lot of money. And for the startup, being hitched to SpaceX ahead of an initial public offering of stock gives it more financial muscle to compete with the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic. However, longtime investors in the satellite builder and rocket operator have had to make room for Musk’s AI shareholders, and
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