By Echo Wang and Joey Roulette<\/p>\n
Feb 2 (Reuters) – Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence<\/a> startup xAI, combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of \u200bthe Grok chatbot in a move aimed at unifying Musk’s AI and space ambitions.<\/p>\n “This marks \u200cnot just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to \u200cunderstand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” Musk said.<\/p>\n The deal, first reported by Reuters last Thursday, represents one of the most ambitious tie-ups in the technology sector yet, combining a space-and-defense contractor with a fast-growing AI developer whose costs are largely driven by chips, data centers and energy. It \u2060could also bolster SpaceX\u2019s data center \u200cambitions as Musk competes with rivals like Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Amazon-backed Anthropic and OpenAI<\/a> in the AI sector.<\/p>\n The combined company is expected to price shares at about $527 \u200deach, and would have a valuation of $1.25 trillion, Bloomberg News reported earlier in the day.<\/p>\n Under the merger agreement, xAI would become a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, said a source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity.<\/p>\n The merger \u200bcomes as the space company plans a blockbuster public offering this year that could value it \u200cat over $1.5 trillion, two people familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n SpaceX, xAI and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n