A number of years after buying Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk announced 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 part of his takeover. “This mix 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 for the reason that 2022 sale, X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted, “The long run couldn’t be brighter.”
Regardless of failing to date to make X an “everything app,” Musk has tied these two ventures collectively intently since launching xAI in the summertime of 2023, saying that entry to the huge trove of information from Twitter / X would give it a serious benefit, and prominently putting xAI’s Grok device throughout the social app. This week, Grok launched an integration past X, joining Telegram.
The association can be a reminder of a earlier Musk deal combining two corporations 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 meeting for the automotive firm final week — it’s unclear if this deal provides to or subtracts from the quantity.
Right this moment’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 were also X employees, with firm laptops and entry to its code base. Musk had additionally previously 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.
Whereas X’s valuation had reportedly dropped for the reason that 2022 takeover earlier than recently rebounding, the worth of xAI has risen together with different corporations 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.
@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 turn into one of many main AI labs on this planet, constructing fashions and information facilities at unprecedented velocity and scale.
X is the digital city sq. the place greater than 600M lively customers go to search out the real-time supply of floor fact and, within the final two years, has been reworked into one of the vital environment friendly corporations on this planet, positioning it to ship scalable future progress.
xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Right this moment, we formally take the step to mix the information, fashions, compute, distribution and expertise. This mix 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 looking for fact and advancing data. This may enable us to construct a platform that doesn’t simply replicate the world however actively accelerates human progress.
I want to acknowledge the hardcore dedication of everybody at xAI and X that has introduced us thus far. That is just the start.
Thanks to your continued partnership and help.
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