Stephanie Hughes

But first, SpaceX, one of the world's largest rocket companies, announced this week it's buying XAI, a two-and-a-half-year-old artificial intelligence startup.

Both companies are controlled by Elon Musk.

The new company is reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion.

It means the chatbot Grok, the satellite internet company Starlink, and the social media firm X are all going to coexist under the same rocket hangar.

I asked Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, what adding these companies together equals.

In his post about the deal, Musk talks up the need to develop space-based data centers to power AI.

Does this merger get us any closer to that?

Yeah.

So let's talk about that IPO.

SpaceX is expected to go public this year.

You know, so now you have a reportedly profitable rocket company wrapped around an AI company that's been burning through money, also getting in trouble for some of the things that Chatbot has been doing.

How does this acquisition complicate the SpaceX IPO?

Yeah.

So I was wondering that, you know, when I think about all the things Elon Musk has to keep an eye on, you know, not just these two, but also Tesla, Neuralink, the Boring Company, I just feel tired.

You know, I know he's the world's richest man and he has help, but I do wonder, is this him trying to simplify things?

It could be.

We'll be right back.

You're listening to Marketplace Tech.

I'm Stephanie Hughes.

We're back with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired.