AI · 4 min read
From xAI to SpaceXAI: How Grok Ended Up Inside a Rocket Company
Founded in March 2023, merged with X in 2025, bought by SpaceX in February 2026 and renamed in July. The fastest corporate journey in Musk's empire.
Follow Musk to Pluto Desk · October 4, 2026
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and left in 2018. In March 2023 he started again, founding xAI with eleven researchers. Grok, named after Robert A. Heinlein's word for deep understanding, launched that November.
Compute first
xAI's answer to the AI race was raw computing power. Its Colossus data centres in Memphis and Southaven went from an empty former factory in 2024 to around one gigawatt of AI compute by mid-2026 — so much that other AI companies now rent capacity there.
One company after another
In March 2025 xAI and X were combined. In February 2026 SpaceX bought xAI at a valuation of US$250 billion, and in July 2026 the company was renamed SpaceXAI. X, the old Twitter, now lives inside it.
Our take
Rockets, satellites, a social network and an AI lab under one roof sounds strange — until you notice that Starlink moves the data, X provides the conversation and Colossus does the thinking. Musk is building one machine, not five companies.