xAI
Also known as SpaceXAI, X.AI Corp., X.AI Holdings Corp.
Elon Musk's AI lab behind Grok, owner of X; SpaceX's AI arm, SpaceXAI, since 2026.
Owned by SpaceX since 2 Feb 2026. Run by Michael Nicolls.
Parent company
- SpaceXOrganization
wholly owned; all-stock acquisition, combined value about $1.25T · since 2 Feb 2026 1
Led by
- Michael Nicolls
president; previously a Starlink vice president · since 10 Apr 2026 1
Before
Investors until 2 Feb 2026
SpaceX (agreed to invest $2B in the July 2025 round), Andreessen Horowitz (Series B, about $6B round (May 2024)), Sequoia Capital (Series B (May 2024) and Series C (December 2024)), Lightspeed Venture Partners (Series B (May 2024)), Tribe Capital (Series B (May 2024)), Blackrock (Series C, $6B round (December 2024)), Fidelity Investments (Series C, $6B round (December 2024)) 1
Founded by
- Elon Musk
- Igor Babuschkinled the founding team as chief engineer
- Jimmy Baleft by February 2026
- Greg Yang
- Christian Szegedy
- Yuhuai Wu
- Guodong Zhangleft in early March 2026
- Zihang Daileft in early March 2026
- Ross Nordeenleft in late March 2026
- Kyle Kosic
- Manuel Kroiss
- Toby Pohlen
People
- Michael Truell
Cursor's CEO; says on his own site he is building SpaceXAI 5
Partners
- AnthropicOrganization
use of xAI's Colossus 1 data center · since May 2026 source on Anthropic
- CursorOrganization
model-training partnership with SpaceXAI that led to the acquisition · Apr 2026 – 14 Aug 2026 source on Cursor
- xAI was founded by Elon Musk and a team of researchers in 2023 and builds the Grok models.
- It took over X Corp. in an all-stock deal in March 2025.
- SpaceX acquired it in an all-stock deal announced on 2 February 2026.
- It was renamed SpaceXAI on 6 July 2026 and now also takes in Cursor.
- Its main compute is the Colossus cluster in Memphis, Tennessee.
Why it matters
- One of the few labs training frontier models, and since 2026 the AI side of a public company that also owns X and Cursor.
- Founded
- Incorporated 9 Mar 2023, announced 12 Jul 20231
- Headquarters
- Palo Alto, California1
- Value in the SpaceX deal
- About $250B, per Reuters (February 2026)2
- X Corp. deal
- All-stock, 28 Mar 2025: xAI valued at $80B, X at $33B ($45B less $12B debt)1
- Name
- SpaceXAI since 6 Jul 2026; Musk said on 4 Oct 2026 it will become SpaceXSI, no date given4
- Products
- Grok models, the X social network, Cursor, Grokipedia1
- Compute
- Colossus cluster, Memphis, Tennessee1
- Original co-founders
- By late March 2026 none besides Musk remained1
Who owns and runs it
Owned by SpaceX since 2 Feb 2026. Run by Michael Nicolls.
Parent company
- SpaceXOrganization
wholly owned; all-stock acquisition, combined value about $1.25T · since 2 Feb 2026 1
Led by
- Michael Nicolls
president; previously a Starlink vice president · since 10 Apr 2026 1
Before
Investors until 2 Feb 2026
SpaceX (agreed to invest $2B in the July 2025 round), Andreessen Horowitz (Series B, about $6B round (May 2024)), Sequoia Capital (Series B (May 2024) and Series C (December 2024)), Lightspeed Venture Partners (Series B (May 2024)), Tribe Capital (Series B (May 2024)), Blackrock (Series C, $6B round (December 2024)), Fidelity Investments (Series C, $6B round (December 2024)) 1
Ownership timeline
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
-
Acquires X Corp.1
All-stock deal; the two were combined into X.AI Holdings Corp.
-
Acquired by SpaceX2
All-stock deal; Musk wrote that "SpaceX & xAI are now one company".
-
Michael Nicolls becomes president1
A Starlink vice president; CFO Anthony Armstrong left the same day.
-
Renamed SpaceXAI (opens engadget.com)3
New name and logo; filings had not yet changed at the time.
-
Cursor joins (opens cursor.com)1
SpaceX's $60B Cursor acquisition closed; Cursor joined the SpaceXAI team.
Connections
Founded by
- Elon Musk
- Igor Babuschkinled the founding team as chief engineer
- Jimmy Baleft by February 2026
- Greg Yang
- Christian Szegedy
- Yuhuai Wu
- Guodong Zhangleft in early March 2026
- Zihang Daileft in early March 2026
- Ross Nordeenleft in late March 2026
- Kyle Kosic
- Manuel Kroiss
- Toby Pohlen
People
- Michael Truell
Cursor's CEO; says on his own site he is building SpaceXAI 5
Partners
- AnthropicOrganization
use of xAI's Colossus 1 data center · since May 2026 source on Anthropic
- CursorOrganization
model-training partnership with SpaceXAI that led to the acquisition · Apr 2026 – 14 Aug 2026 source on Cursor
Links
Sources
- SpaceXAI (Wikipedia) (opens en.wikipedia.org)
- Elon Musk's SpaceX Merges With xAI In Trillion-Dollar Merger (Benzinga via Yahoo Finance, 2026-02-04) (opens finance.yahoo.com)
- xAI is now officially known as SpaceXAI (Engadget, 2026-07-07) (opens engadget.com)
- Elon Musk says SpaceXAI will be renamed SpaceXSI after Trump's AI order (The Next Web) (opens thenextweb.com)
- Michael Truell (personal site) (opens mntruell.com)
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The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.