Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting transaction, uniting his AI and space ambitions under a single corporate structure.
First reported last week, the deal brings together a rocket-and-satellite powerhouse with a fast-growing AI developer behind the Grok chatbot, marking one of the most ambitious tech tie-ups to date.
The transaction values SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter, underscoring the scale of Musk’s expanding business ecosystem.
Under the terms, xAI investors will receive 0.1433 shares of SpaceX for each xAI share. Some executives may instead opt for a cash payout priced at $75.46 per share.
Musk described the merger as a leap toward a broader mission, framing it as an effort to scale AI and space infrastructure together to deepen understanding of the universe.
The acquisition breaks the long-standing record for the world’s largest M&A deal, surpassing Vodafone’s $203 billion takeover of Mannesmann in 2000, according to LSEG data.
The combined company is expected to price shares at around $527, with the merger arriving ahead of a potential blockbuster SpaceX IPO that could value the firm above $1.5 trillion.
While the deal further consolidates Musk’s businesses into a tightly linked ecosystem, it could also attract regulatory scrutiny, particularly given SpaceX’s federal contracts and Musk’s overlapping leadership roles across multiple companies.
