In a surprise move, Elon Musk on Friday revealed that he had sold social media site X to xAI in a $33 billion deal. The artificial intelligence (AI) company has acquired X in an all-stock deal.
Musk said in a post on X that the move will “unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”
Elon Musk, who is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX as well as an advisor to US President Donald Trump, bought the site then called Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. He became the CEO of the company, changed its name to X, fired most its staff, and changed its policies on hate speech, misinformation and user verification.
What did Elon Musk say about X deal?
In his post on X, Elon Musk listed out the benefit of selling X to xAI.
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach,” Elon Musk wrote on X.
He said the deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion.
“The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge,” Musk added.
What is xAI, the company that bought X?
xAI is a US-based public-benefit corporation that functions in the realm of artificial intelligence. Founded by Elon Musk in March 2023, the company’s stated goal is “to understand the true nature of the universe”.
Headquartered in San Francisco Bay Area in California, xAI ‘s establishment marked Elon Musk’s re-entry into the AI space after OpenAI.
Officially launched in July 2023, xAI started with a team of 12 people including Elon Musk, some of whom boast experience with GPT developments and Google DeepMind. Igor Babuschkin, who formerly worked with Google’s DeepMind unit, was recruited by Musk to be Chief Engineer.
On its website, xAI says its goal is to solve “real problems”.
“Our approach to rapid development and iteration allows us to innovate at breakneck speeds. We’re not interested in speed for speed’s sake—we’re here to solve real problems,” says the website.
xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent.
In November 2023, Elon Musk announced xAI’s inaugural project Grok. He later integrated the AI feature to X and made it free to all a few months after. In recent times, Grok’s popularity has exploded in countries like India.
Who owns xAI?
Elon Musk had founded xAI in 2023. The 53-year-old business mogul is the primary owner and driver of the company. Both X and xAI are privately-pwned companies. This means that details about additional owners of xAI are not known yet.
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