In a surprising move, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has announced that his artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, has acquired X (formerly Twitter) for a staggering $33 billion. This deal comes just over a year after Musk's controversial takeover of Twitter for $44 billion.
The acquisition was confirmed by Musk in a tweet on March 28, where he stated, "xAI has acquired X for $33 billion." This move marks a significant consolidation of Musk's interests, bringing together his social media platform with his AI ambitions.
xAI, founded by Musk in 2023, has been developing an AI chatbot called Grok, which is seen as a competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT. The company has been making significant strides in the AI field, and this acquisition is seen as a strategic move to leverage X's vast user base and data for further AI development.
The $33 billion valuation of X represents a significant discount from the $44 billion Musk paid for it last year. However, it is worth noting that the valuation includes $12 billion in debt, bringing the total enterprise value of X to $45 billion.
This acquisition is expected to have a major impact on the future of both X and xAI. It will allow xAI to access X's vast user base and data, which can be used to train its AI models and improve the performance of Grok. X, on the other hand, will benefit from xAI's advanced AI capabilities, which can be used to enhance the platform's features and improve user experience.
This move is seen as a major step towards Musk's vision of creating a "super app" that combines social media, messaging, payments, and other services. It also highlights the growing importance of AI in the tech industry and the increasing consolidation of power among a few large companies.
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