Musk merges SpaceX and xAI: an unlisted 1.25 trillion colossus is born

Elon Musk reorganises his empire: SpaceX takes over xAI, creating a colossus with an estimated value of USD 1,250 billion. The new group also becomes the largest unlisted company, at least for the time being, in the world.

The decision is intended to strengthen the business led by the tycoon, with the established strength of SpaceX, which has long dominated in its field, with the Ai start-up now facing fierce competition and unresolved challenges. But not only that: the ambition is to explore in this way a new frontier, to which Musk has already alluded recently, made up of large data centres for artificial intelligence built in space.

Musk, at the helm of both companies, announced the decision in an internal memo later made public. "SpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically integrated, innovation engine in the world (and beyond)," he wrote.

Again: 'This is not just the next chapter, but the next volume on SpaceX and xAI's mission: to grow to make a sentient sun understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars'. More concretely, Musk states that the demand for electricity for AI cannot be met on planet Earth, and that data centres will therefore have to find locations in space where they can rely on solar power. In a filing to regulators, SpaceX has already outlined a plan to deploy a data centre network of up to one million satellites in orbit.

The merger, from what has been leaked, values xAI at $250 billion, with the rest of the gigantic valuation, i.e. $1 trillion, tied up in SpaceX (whose unlisted stock is now worth $527, up from $421 in December alone). The transaction was structured as a share exchange, according to the Wal Street Journal, which cites an email sent to xAI employees: each of xAI's shares will be converted into 0.1433 SpaceX shares.