Elon Musk Merges AI with X: Implications

Elon Musk has announced today that his artificial intelligence company, xAI, has acquired X (formerly Twitter) in an all-stock transaction valued at $33 billion, with xAI's valuation reaching $80 billion (xAI was valued at around $50 billion in a financing round last year and according to Bloomberg, last month the company was in talks to raise funds at a $75 billion valuation). Although his feature, “Grok” has already been integrated into X for some time, it makes xAI and X officially a single entity.

Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.

This merger aims to integrate xAI's advanced AI capabilities with X's extensive user base of over 600 million active users, leveraging resources such as data, models, computing power, distribution networks, and talent.

If I were a betting woman, I’d guess that this has been Musk’s plan for quite some time—he wasn’t just acquiring a social network or a ‘town square’ to restore freedom of speech, but rather an endless amount of user data. Because…