Topline
Elon Musk said Friday his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has acquired his social media platform, X, for $33 billion in an all-stock transaction.
Musk announced the acquisition Friday evening. (Photo by Emin Sansar/Anadolu Agency via Getty … More
Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesKey Facts
Musk announced the deal in a Friday post, saying it valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, or $45 billion if the social network’s $12 billion in debt is included.
Musk, who purchased X for $44 billion in 2022, when it was known as Twitter, said the acquisition entails the combination of xAI and X’s “data, models, compute, distribution and talent.”
The two Musk-owned companies already have plenty of overlap, with X’s AI chatbot, Grok, being developed by xAI, and all xAI staffers being X employees, at least on paper, according to The Verge.
An $80 billion valuation for xAI places it somewhat closer to rival AI company OpenAI, which is currently valued at $157 billion and is close to finalizing a SoftBank-led funding round that will boost its valuation to a whopping $300 billion, according to Bloomberg.
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Forbes Valuation
We estimate Musk’s net worth at $342.9 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the world and placing him well ahead of Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos’ and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s new worths, which are $209.2 billion and $199.5 billion, respectively.
Key Background
Musk overhauled the brand of Twitter after buying it for $44 billion about three years ago, renaming the platform X, introducing changes to its policies and features and slashing 80% of the company’s workforce. A year after Musk’s takeover, X suffered from an advertiser exodus and a massive reduction in value, with its valuation dropping to $16.9 billion. The fleeing of advertisers was triggered after Musk approved of an antisemitic tweet and then claimed advertisers who were “blackmailing” him with money should “go f*** themselves.” Since then, Musk has become one of President Donald Trump’s largest backers and closest advisers, using the social platform to boost his increasingly right-wing politics. X is poised to record its first year of ad revenue growth since Musk purchased the platform and is projected to generate $1.3 billion in U.S. advertising sales this year, Bloomberg reported, citing research firm Emarketer.
Further Reading
Elon Musk And Fellow Billionaires Are Spending Millions On This Wisconsin Court Race—Here’s Why (Forbes)
Elon Musk’s X Sees Popularity Slide After Election — While Threads, Bluesky Make Gains (Forbes)
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