RJ Hamster
Will xAI gain legitimacy from a SpaceX tie-up?
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Here’s what we got for you today:
- Will xAI gain legitimacy from a SpaceX tie-up?
- Sam Altman’s OpenAI succession plan
Will xAI gain legitimacy from a SpaceX tie-up?
Elon Musk has effectively moved $250 billion from one pocket to another.
On Monday, Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX announced it would acquire xAI, his AI startup that also owns the social media platform X. While financial terms were not disclosed, The Information reported the deal values the acquisition at $250 billion.
In a joint statement, the combined company said the transaction would create “the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth.” SpaceX reiterated its long-term vision of building space-based data centers that leverage solar energy to power AI training.
“This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars,” the company said.
According to Bloomberg, the deal places the combined entity at a $1.25 trillion valuation ahead of a planned IPO, with shares expected to price at $526.59. At that level, SpaceX would surpass OpenAI as the world’s most valuable startup, potentially intensifying Musk’s rivalry with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. OpenAI is currently targeting a valuation of up to $830 billion as it raises capital in a forthcoming twelve-figure funding round.
The acquisition further adds to Musk’s growing web of interlinked companies. Last March, xAI acquired X, formerly Twitter, in a deal valued at $45 billion, or $33 billion when accounting for $12 billion in debt. That transaction was pitched as a way to unify “data, models, compute, distribution, and talent,” while helping stabilize investor confidence amid concerns over X’s declining value.
Beyond financial engineering and competitive positioning, the SpaceX deal could lend xAI greater legitimacy. The company has faced repeated controversies tied to its flagship model, Grok, including outputs flagged for antisemitic content and the generation of explicit imagery, some allegedly involving minors. These issues earned Grok an “unacceptable risk” rating from advocacy group Common Sense Media.
While the acquisition is unlikely to change the model’s behavior overnight, proximity to SpaceX may bolster xAI’s standing among peers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, reframing the company less as a rogue experiment and more as part of Musk’s broader industrial and technological empire.
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Sam Altman’s OpenAI succession plan
OpenAI’s CEO just gave Forbes a sprawling profile that managed to cover everything from AGI hot takes to corporate succession, with a cameo from a visibly unimpressed Satya Nadella.
The highlights:
Altman said his long-term succession plan is to “hand off the company to an AI model,” arguing that if the goal is to build AGI capable of running organizations, OpenAI should be the first test case.
He also claimed OpenAI has “basically built AGI,” a statement Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella quickly pushed back on, while describing the Microsoft–OpenAI relationship as something closer to “frenemies” than partners.
Forbes reported that Altman holds stakes in more than 500 companies, a detail that has reportedly fueled internal concern among employees that OpenAI is trying to do “too much too quickly.”
Altman also addressed his ongoing feud with Elon Musk, saying it’s “crazy to me how much time he spends attacking us,” while taking shots at xAI’s own safety record.
Why it matters: Nobody in AI is better at shaping the conversation than Sam Altman. From declaring AGI effectively solved to casually proposing an AI CEO-in-waiting, he knows how to dominate the narrative. The open question is whether OpenAI’s execution, governance, and increasingly sprawling ambitions can keep pace with the vision he keeps putting into the world.
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