Elon Musk is reportedly in “advanced talks” to merge his rocket company SpaceX with his artificial intelligence firm xAI.
The two entities, each of which are privately held, have told some of their investors about the plans, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
An announcement about the merger could come as soon as this week, according to the outlet, though sources said the negotiations could take longer or even fall apart entirely.
The Post has reached out to SpaceX and xAI for comment.
The latter, which owns the social media site X and runs the Grok chatbot, raised funds at a $200 billion valuation in the fall. Meanwhile, SpaceX, which has huge rocket contracts with NASA and offers the Starlink satellite internet service, is aiming to raise $50 billion at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to multiple reports.
A potential merger would impact SpaceX’s reported plans to go public. Last week, the Financial Times reported Musk had floated holding an IPO in mid-June to coincide with a rare planetary alignment and his 55th birthday.
Musk has said he wants to launch AI data centers into space – an expensive plan that would require SpaceX’s capabilities and a significant cash infusion.
Last week, SpaceX asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch up to 1 million satellites into orbit to help “accommodate the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI,” according to a filing.
“By directly harnessing near-constant solar power with little operating or maintenance costs, these satellites will achieve transformative cost and energy efficiency while significantly reducing the environmental impact associated with terrestrial data centers,” SpaceX wrote in the filing.
Musk serves as CEO of both SpaceX and xAI. He’s also the boss of electric car maker Tesla, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunnel-digging firm The Boring Company.
