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Elon Musk Merges xAI with Social Media Platform X in Major Deal
Elon Musk has announced the sale of the social media platform X to his artificial intelligence venture, xAI, in a significant transaction valued at $33 billion, structured as an all-stock deal. This announcement was made public on Friday.
Both xAI and X operate as privately held companies, which means they are not obligated to release financial details to the broader public.
In his announcement on X, Musk highlighted the goal of this merger, stating that it will “unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.” According to Musk, this deal estimates xAI’s worth at $80 billion and X’s at $33 billion. Musk initially acquired the platform, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022, after which he made significant changes to its workforce and altered its policies regarding hate speech, misinformation, and user verification, ultimately rebranding it as X.
Musk launched xAI one year after acquiring X.
According to Musk, the futures of xAI and X are now closely linked. He expressed this sentiment in another post, declaring, “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.” He further stated that the newly unified company aims to provide smarter and more meaningful experiences for billions, while remaining committed to its core mission of promoting truth and advancing knowledge.
As for the implications of this merger for X’s user base, details remain sparse. Notably, xAI has already utilized data from user posts on X to refine its AI models, and premium users of X have been granted access to an AI chatbot named Grok.
Source
finance.yahoo.com