Elon Musk’s xAI to acquire X in $33 billion deal

Elon Musk announced Friday that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is acquiring his social networking platform X in a deal that values the company, formerly known as Twitter, at $33 billion.

In a post on X, Musk said the merger would unlock “immense potential” by combining xAI’s advanced artificial intelligence capabilities with X’s vast user base.

“With over 600 million users, X’s future is intertwined with that of xAI,” Musk wrote. “Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution, and talent.”

The all-stock deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, which accounts for the social network’s $12 billion debt. The combination of the companies is set to create a platform that Musk believes will not just reflect the world, but actively accelerate human progress.

@xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination 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…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2025

‘Scary smart’

Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022, a deal that included debt, and launched xAI the following year, investing heavily in high-end Nvidia chips. xAI recently released its latest chatbot, Grok 3, which Musk promotes as “scary smart,” with 10 times the computational resources of its predecessor.

Grok 3 competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, placing Musk in direct competition with former collaborator Sam Altman, who was also part of the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015. Musk left the company three years later, and since then, their relationship has soured, leading to increasing tensions and legal disputes.

Musk, the world’s richest person and a major financial backer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, has also led efforts to reduce government employment through his Department of Government Efficiency.

Industry analysts at Emarketer forecast that X’s advertising revenue will grow this year, with brands fearing potential political and financial repercussions from Musk if they don’t spend on the platform. Emarketer principal analyst Jasmine Enberg noted that “many advertisers may view spending on X as a cost of doing business in order to mitigate potential legal or financial repercussions.”