SpaceX announced today that it has acquired xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, in a deal that creates a combined entity reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion ahead of a planned IPO. The acquisition notably does not include Tesla, which just invested $2 billion in xAI last month.
The deal
Musk announced the acquisition in a blog post describing SpaceX-xAI as “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.”
The deal combines SpaceX (valued at roughly $800 billion in its last secondary offering) with xAI (valued at $230 billion after its recent $20 billion funding round). The merged company is expected to pursue an IPO later this year that could raise as much as $50 billion, according to the rumors on Wall Street.
Musk’s stated vision is to build “orbital data centers”, a constellation of up to one million AI satellites that would harness solar power in space to run AI compute. SpaceX filed with the FCC last week for authorization to launch these satellites.
