Elon Musk has sold social media platform X to his artificial intelligence company xAI in a $33 billion (€30.5 billion) all-stock transaction.
The billionaire, who also serves as an advisor to Donald Trump, announced the move on Friday, though it remains unclear what changes—if any—users of the platform will experience.
X, formerly known as Twitter before Musk acquired it for $44 billion (€40 billion) in 2022, has undergone significant transformations under his ownership, including major staff cuts and policy shifts. The deal now places X under the umbrella of xAI, a company Musk launched a year later, with the goal of advancing artificial intelligence technologies.
Musk explained the rationale behind the acquisition in a post on X:
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution, and talent,” he wrote. “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.”
He further stated that the integration of X with xAI’s advanced AI capabilities would “unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”
Musk also revealed that the deal values xAI at $80 billion (€74 billion), significantly higher than X’s valuation.
Since its inception, xAI has grown into a major AI research lab, constructing large-scale data centers and developing new AI models. The company has been working on expanding its supercomputer, ‘Colossus,’ to compete with rivals like OpenAI.
For X users, the immediate impact of the sale remains uncertain. xAI already uses X’s data for AI training, and paying subscribers currently have access to the AI chatbot, Grok.
