Elon Musk Sells Social Media Platform X to xAI for $33 Billion

Elon Musk has announced the sale of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to his artificial intelligence company xAI in an all-stock transaction valued at $33 billion (€30.5 billion).

Musk originally acquired Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion before rebranding it as X. Both X and xAI remain privately held, exempting them from public financial disclosures. According to Musk, the deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).

“Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale,” Musk stated. He described X as “the digital town square” with over 600 million active users.

Musk stated, “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 capabilities with X’s massive reach.”

He added, “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. This will allow us to build a platform that not only reflects the world but actively accelerates human progress.”

Following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, he introduced workforce reductions, policy changes on misinformation and user verification, and rebranded the platform as X. In 2023, he launched xAI to compete with AI firms like OpenAI. Recently, he announced plans to expand xAI’s supercomputer, ‘Colossus,’ by increasing GPU capacity to accelerate AI model development.

The impact of this merger on X users remains uncertain. Currently, xAI utilizes data from X user posts to train its AI models, while premium X subscribers have access to xAI’s chatbot, Grok.

How the integration of AI into X will affect user experience and content moderation remains to be seen.

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