Billionaire Elon Musk has once again surprised the global community of investors. He announced that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has acquired the social media platform X, which is also under the businessman’s control. The deal is estimated at $33 billion. The acquisition came as a surprise to the social network, previously known as Twitter.
“The combined value of xAI is $80 billion, while the social network X is valued at $33 billion,” the billionaire wrote. Currently, the market value of the X platform stands at $45 billion, including a $12 billion debt, the businessman clarified. Citing Elon Musk, this purchase was “a sale of all shares.”
According to reliable sources, the new merger, called XAI Holdings, is valued at $100 billion, excluding the debt. Preliminary information suggests that Morgan Stanley was the sole banker representing both parties in the deal.
For the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, this deal simplifies business operations and reinforces the relationship between the former Twitter and xAI, which has been using information from the social network to improve its chatbot. The deal is also beneficial for other X investors, who had been uncertain about their investments for several months. Interestingly, recent changes Musk made to the X platform caused a large-scale departure of users and advertisers.
The billionaire said that the future of XAI and X is interconnected. The current innovations will benefit both the business and the entire industry. “Today, we are officially combining data, models, computations, distribution, and talent. This combination will unlock huge potential, merging xAI’s cutting-edge capabilities and experience with the broad user reach of the X social network,” Musk added.
