Elon Musk announced Friday that he has sold the social media platform X to his artificial intelligence startup xAI in a $33 billion all-stock deal. The move brings the two privately held companies under one roof and marks another bold shift in Musk’s expanding tech empire.
Musk shared the news on X, writing that the deal will “unlock immense potential” by combining the AI capabilities of xAI with the massive reach of X.
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined,” Musk wrote. “We officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution, and talent.”
How the Deal Breaks Down
The deal, although internal, assigns xAI a valuation of $80 billion and X a value of $33 billion. Because both companies are private, they aren’t required to disclose financials publicly.
Musk didn’t clarify whether this change would significantly impact X’s users. However, xAI already uses public posts from X to train its artificial intelligence models. Users on paid X tiers can access xAI’s chatbot Grok, while non-paying users get limited interactions — 10 questions every two hours.
A Look Back at Musk’s Twitter Takeover
Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, later renaming it X and overhauling the platform’s operations. His leadership brought major changes, including:
- Mass layoffs across engineering and trust & safety teams
- Looser content moderation policies
- A revised verification system, pushing paid subscriptions for blue checkmarks
A year later, he launched xAI, positioning it as a competitor to OpenAI and other generative AI leaders. Now, he’s fusing both companies into a single operation aimed at delivering “smarter, more meaningful experiences.”
What This Means Going Forward
While the immediate user experience may not change, this move signals Musk’s intention to blend social media and AI more deeply. With access to X’s user data, distribution channels, and engagement patterns, xAI could rapidly scale its capabilities.
“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.
Musk currently serves as CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and now leads xAI. He also acts as a senior advisor to President Donald Trump.
As the AI race accelerates and platforms compete for dominance, Musk is betting big that tighter integration between AI infrastructure and massive social platforms like X will drive the next wave of tech innovation.
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