SpaceX to invest US$2 billion in Musk's xAI startup

[NEW YORK] SpaceX has committed US$2 billion to xAI as part of a US$5 billion equity round, deepening the ties between tech billionaire Elon Musk’s ventures as his artificial intelligence startup races to compete with rival OpenAI, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The investment follows xAI’s merger with X and values the combined company at US$113 billion, with the Grok chatbot now powering Starlink support and eyed for future integration into Tesla’s Optimus robots, the report added.

In response to a post on X about whether Tesla, could also invest in xAI, Elon Musk said on Sunday (Jul 13), “It would be great, but subject to board and shareholder approval,” without confirming or denying the Journal report on SpaceX’s investment plans in xAI.

SpaceX, xAI and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not immediately confirm the WSJ report.

Despite recent controversies involving Grok’s responses, Musk has called it “the smartest AI in the world,” and xAI continues to spend heavily on model training and infrastructure. REUTERS