Elon Musk announced the unification of SpaceX and xAI, consolidating his growing tech empire

Elon Musk announced Monday that SpaceX, his aerospace and satellite communications company, has acquired his artificial intelligence company xAI, further consolidating his growing technology empire. In a statement posted on SpaceX's website, the also-owner of X described the deal as a key step in unifying several of his companies under a single vision. "SpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based Internet, direct communications to mobile devices, and the world's leading platform for real-time information and free speech," he wrote.

The acquisition follows Musk's previous decision to merge xAI with social networking platform X in March last year, a transaction that reportedly valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion. The latest merger comes amid reports that SpaceX would be preparing for a possible initial public offering later this year. The announcement comes after SpaceX recently filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for approval to deploy up to 1 million satellites, an initiative that Reuters reports would be aimed at supporting data centers in space.

Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, has increasingly emphasized the role he believes space will play in the future of artificial intelligence to meet the huge infrastructure demands of advanced AI systems. "Today's advances in AI rely on large terrestrial data centers, which require huge amounts of power and cooling. The global demand for electricity for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment," Musk said in his statement.

Looking longer term, he argued that moving AI infrastructure beyond Earth is inevitable. "In the long term,space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale," he added.