The deal valued the combined company at $1.25tn after Musk marked up the private valuation of SpaceX to $1tn, citing increases in revenue from its Starlink satellite broadband service, the people added. The rocket company was recently valued at $800bn in a secondary stock sale.<\/p>\n
SpaceX<\/a> chief financial officer Bret Johnsen told investors on a call on Monday afternoon that shares in the combined entity would be priced at $527. Shares of xAI will be converted into SpaceX stock at an exchange rate of roughly seven to one.<\/p>\n Executives also confirmed that SpaceX is still aiming for an initial public offering in June. The FT has previously reported that Musk is pushing for the company to list that month because of a rare alignment<\/a> of the planets Jupiter, Venus and Mercury.<\/p>\n The IPO is expected to raise as much as $50bn, which would make it the largest flotation of all time, exceeding the $29bn raised by Saudi Aramco in 2019.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s merger, which bankers say could complicate that expedited timeline for the public offering, forms part of Musk\u2019s vision to develop \u201ca sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n xAI<\/a> and rivals, including Sam Altman\u2019s OpenAI and Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Meta, have spent the past two years rushing to develop the costly data centres and chips needed to train and power their AI models. <\/p>\n Musk on Monday said \u201corbital data centres\u201d would be essential to the future of the technology. <\/p>\n \u201cGlobal electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIn the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale.\u201d<\/p>\n SpaceX\u2019s planned IPO would enable the company to fund the launch of large satellites to build out Musk\u2019s ambitions for AI data centres in orbit. <\/p>\n \u201cIn an age of AI maximalism, that\u2019s worth trillions and trillions of dollars,\u201d said one investor in both companies. <\/p>\n The news is part of a broader consolidation of different wings of Musk\u2019s empire under one corporate umbrella. Last March, xAI merged with Musk\u2019s social media platform X. <\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n
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