A number of years after shopping for Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk introduced that his AI enterprise xAI has acquired the social media platform X, previously referred to as Twitter. In a tweet, he described it as an all-stock transaction, valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, together with $12 billion in debt it had as a part of his takeover. “This mixture will unlock immense potential by mixing xAI’s superior AI functionality and experience with X’s large attain,” writes Musk.
In response to a deal cementing about $11 billion in misplaced worth because the 2022 sale, X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted, “The future couldn’t be brighter.”
Despite failing thus far to make X an “all the pieces app,” Musk has tied these two ventures collectively carefully since launching xAI in the summertime of 2023, saying that entry to the huge trove of knowledge from Twitter / X would give it a significant benefit, and prominently putting xAI’s Grok device inside the social app. This week, Grok launched an integration past X, becoming a member of Telegram.
The association can also be a reminder of a earlier Musk deal combining two firms he managed. Tesla Motors acquired SolarCity, an organization with Musk as its largest particular person shareholder and his cousin Lyndon Rive as CEO, for $2.6 billion in 2016 and dropped “Motors” from its identify. Musk didn’t point out Tesla within the announcement, after already proclaiming “I’ve, like, 17 jobs” at a hastily-announced all-hands assembly for the automobile firm final week — it’s unclear if this deal provides to or subtracts from the quantity.
Today’s tweet additionally didn’t point out his ambition for the service to deal with “somebody’s total monetary life,” nevertheless it does repeat his declare of X as “the digital city sq..”As we famous in January, xAI staffers had been additionally X staff, with firm laptops and entry to its code base. Musk had additionally beforehand claimed X buyers would personal 25 p.c of XAI, however as of January, that had not materialized for X staff with shares within the firm.
While X’s valuation had reportedly dropped because the 2022 takeover earlier than not too long ago rebounding, the worth of xAI has risen together with different firms within the house like Nvidia and OpenAI, the place Musk has gone from co-founder and early investor to rival and authorized antagonist since strolling away in 2018. The Wall Street Journal reported xAI had been valued at $50 billion in an funding spherical final November, greater than double its $24 billion valuation throughout one other funding spherical within the spring of 2024.
Elon Musk:
@xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The mixture values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B much less $12B debt).
Since its founding two years in the past, xAI has quickly change into one of many main AI labs on the planet, constructing fashions and information facilities at unprecedented pace and scale.
X is the digital city sq. the place greater than 600M lively customers go to seek out the real-time supply of floor fact and, within the final two years, has been remodeled into one of the crucial environment friendly firms on the planet, positioning it to ship scalable future development.
xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we formally take the step to mix the info, fashions, compute, distribution and expertise. This mixture will unlock immense potential by mixing xAI’s superior AI functionality and experience with X’s large attain. The mixed firm will ship smarter, extra significant experiences to billions of individuals whereas staying true to our core mission of searching for fact and advancing information. This will permit us to construct a platform that doesn’t simply mirror the world however actively accelerates human progress.
I want to acknowledge the hardcore dedication of everybody at xAI and X that has introduced us up to now. This is only the start.
Thank you in your continued partnership and assist.
