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Elon Musk announced that his AI company, xAI, has acquired his social media platform X, previously known as Twitter.
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In a post on X Friday, Musk revealed that the all-stock deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion. Musk had purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.
“XAI and X’s futures are intertwined,” Musk shared on X. “Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution, and talent.”
This move may be designed to protect investors who supported Musk’s purchase of X from potential losses.
Both X and xAI are privately owned and share key investors and resources.
Musk wrote, “The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge.”
xAI has been using data from social media posts on X to train its models, with its chatbot, Grok, being a prominent feature of the platform.
Analyst Paolo Pescatore, founder of PP Foresight, commented, “The move seems logical, given the rising investments in AI, data centers, and computing.”
Musk is currently engaged in a legal dispute with OpenAI, a company he co-founded in 2015 with CEO Sam Altman. Last year, Musk sued OpenAI and Altman for diverging from the company’s original mission and shifting toward a for-profit model.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI is finalizing a $40 billion funding round with SoftBank, contingent on the company completing its restructuring into a for-profit entity. OpenAI did not respond to a BBC inquiry about the deal.
Some critics argue that Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI is driven by his desire to control the company.
Earlier this year, a consortium led by Musk made an unsolicited $97.4 billion offer to take over OpenAI, which Altman rejected, stating that the company was not for sale.
This business activity comes as Musk has increasingly engaged in politics, notably aligning with former President Donald Trump. He has led efforts to reduce federal spending and has spent the weekend in Wisconsin, where he has donated millions to a state Supreme Court race. Wisconsin’s attorney general has asked a court to prevent Musk from distributing $1 million checks to voters ahead of the election.
