Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Twitter Businesses Social Networks

xAI Acquires X 53

Posted by BeauHD from the everything-app dept.
Elon Musk says its xAI company has acquired the social media platform X in an all-stock transaction. "The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45 billion less $12 billion debt)," said Musk. He writes on X: 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 unprecedented speed and scale. X is the digital town square where more than 600M active users go to find the real-time source of ground truth and, in the last two years, has been transformed into one of the most efficient companies in the world, positioning it to deliver scalable future growth.

xAI and X's futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI's advanced AI capability and expertise with X's massive reach. The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge. This will allow us to build a platform that doesn't just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.

I would like to recognize the hardcore dedication of everyone at xAI and X that has brought us to this point. This is just the beginning. Thank you for your continued partnership and support.

xAI Acquires X More | Reply

xAI Acquires X

Comments Filter:

  • Hilarious! Ground truth?! (Score:3)

    by felixrising ( 1135205 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @06:17PM (#65266475)
    Just ridiculous calling a social media platform full of subjective opinions and regurgitated half truths and rumour "ground truth", dilusional at best!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      ground truths are simply a basis for training, they are the "knowns". Ground truths do not have to be true, they can be outright lies. It doesn't matter that an AI treats lies as ground truths, it only matters that you assume that they don't.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Ground truth is what you get when you actually go somewhere and muck around down in the mud. Doesn't sound like a bad description of X.

      Unless you're a "data scientist" in which case it means whatever someone assumes to be true, which is also a pretty decent description of X.

    • Another typical /. screwup, April 1 isn't for another few days.
  • I'm sure Saudi Arabia and all those people that actually gave Rat the money to buy Twitter are glad their share just dropped precipitously.

    • Re: What in the financial shennanigans? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RazorSharp ( 1418697 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @06:55PM (#65266589)

      This was probably a financial shenanigan that allowed him to pay them off by diverting venture capital money that was supposed to go to creating an AI company.

      • Re: What in the financial shennanigans? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @07:34PM (#65266707)
        Yeah I was wondering what the scam is but I think you're right and the people who gave him money or just out the cash now. Musk is above the law so he doesn't have to worry about it.

        He's also smart enough to be careful not to screw over the 0.1%. just like how countess Bathory didn't get in trouble until she started spilling blood of nobles you can rip off as many working class Americans as you want right up until you start screwing with the actual rich. Then you go to jail. Just ask Maddoff or Holmes

        • Yeah I've always said that apparently Billionares dont have to follow laws.... unless they get caught screwing over other billionares, that is.

      • Re: What in the financial shennanigans? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by spazmonkey ( 920425 ) on Saturday March 29, 2025 @02:17AM (#65267305)

        Absolutely.
        Musk's purchase was heavily leveraged against Tesla stock, which is falling in value.
        Dude was one margin call away from losing -everything-, and that margin call was very near.
        Saving himself by redirecting the xAI investors money to cover his debts instead of, well, developing xAI is a bad look, and almost assuredly violated an assload of laws> But since we are in a post-law society, that part really doesn't matter. On to the next grift.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        Hmmm...actually my thought was that now xAI has the right to train on all material from twitter no matter how several current court cases turn out. And isn't he just switching money from hand to hand with in the purchase? It probably hardly cost him anything. (OTOH, I don't know who owns how much of what, so that could easily be wrong.)

        • Hmmm...actually my thought was that now xAI has the right to train on all material from twitter...

          That was my first thought as well. But beyond that, it probably also makes certain kinds of experimentation easier. For example, expect to see Twit-X "accounts" - if they don't exist already - whose tweets are obviously from an LLM.

          Then, expect to see accounts whose tweets are not-so-obviously from an LLM. It may become impossible for anyone who doesn't have access to the servers to know which users are real and which are fake. In fact, Twit-X might end up with ZERO living, breathing users.

          To enjoy huge adv

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      It sounds like they got out of it for the price they paid. In which case they were just handed a massive reprieve. Or, if they stayed in, they at least now own part of an AI company that also owns a failing social media website, instead of just the social media website.

  • Grok AI (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @06:27PM (#65266509)

    Even his own AI says Elon does nothing but spread misinformation. https://www.latintimes.com/mus... [latintimes.com]

  • The propaganda tool is getting an upgrade, might as well combine the two entities involved. Musk also gets to buy it well over its worth to pump up the official value for his ego's sake.

    We have to start containing social media within national boundaries, make it difficult for the average person to access across borders and at least make the agitprop campaigns require some effort to insert and control content.

  • Anyway, good luck with that.

  • TWTR stock delisted (Score:3)

    by Gavino ( 560149 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @06:47PM (#65266573)
    It probably irked Elon that the X stock ticker still referenced Twitter by using TWTR. Now that's retired. It will also make Twitter look more successful than it is, by hiding its relatively lacklustre performance within that of xAI.

  • Only so Musk can cash out Twitter in the black (Score:5, Insightful)

    by edi_guy ( 2225738 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @06:49PM (#65266579)

    Clearly a way for Musk to get out of his disastrous Twitter investment. He grossly overpaid for Twitter, super underwater. He can pretend that xAI is worth 80 billion based on some bulls--t latest round of investment. Twitter is 'bought' with the fake xAI stock, and then Musk is able to divest his money during this peak AI frenzy...and later whoever has xAI investments takes the losses. Take that Delaware Chancery court.

    Super bonus that apparently financial fraud is fine if you ass-kiss the president.

    Unreal that the US is turning into a banana republic right before my eyes

    • Clearly a way for Musk to get out of his disastrous Twitter investment. He grossly overpaid for Twitter, super underwater.

      Musk obtained a successful, mature propaganda system that Herr Goebbels could only dream of. A few billion dollars? A bargain.

  • $80 Billion? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by laughingskeptic ( 1004414 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @07:18PM (#65266647)
    How is a company that made $100 million in revenue last year through corporate nepotism -- and lost $1B worth $80B? Does Musk get to just completely make up the value of his companies like Trump does his properties? Are there any auditors in this process?

    • Re:$80 Billion? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Vegan Cyclist ( 1650427 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @07:40PM (#65266729) Homepage

      In a word, yes, it's all made up. Valuations are pointless.

      600mil users? Really? That's nearly 1 in 10 people PLANET WIDE.

      I know for certain 1 in 10 people in my life are not using post-Twitter. And has never been nearly close to that.

      And that somehow has a value of $45bil? I don't even understand how it made $100mil, I'd wager that number is highly suspect as well.

      And it's even easier to do this in the USA now because there are apparently no consequences for lying.

      Looks like the 'good ole days' is actually referring to the 'wild west'.

      • In a word, yes, it's all made up. Valuations are pointless.

        That's the "beauty" of the stock market, that stock prices don't have to follow any rules whatsoever. Pundits talk about PE ratios and other numbers, but the stock prices don't have to follow any of that. However, since there are so many shareholders, the peloton generally follows the general numbers wisdom in the long run.

        Even the valuation of private companies is subject to this phenomenon. Musk can pretend his private companies are worth whatever he chooses. However, the real worth is only what a pot

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by leonbev ( 111395 )

        I'd imagine that most of the remaining X/Twitter users are hype beasts who have 50 sock puppet accounts each to promote their own content.

        Whatever number of "active users" Elon is touting for X right now is a gross fabrication.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      How is a company that made $100 million in revenue last year through corporate nepotism -- and lost $1B worth $80B? Does Musk get to just completely make up the value of his companies like Trump does his properties? Are there any auditors in this process?

      Basically a valuation is just a random number pulled out of thin air.

      Say you're going for investment funding, and your VC says they'll pick up 10% at $100M. That means your valuation is $1B - because the VC firm is buying 10% of it for $100M, so 100% of the

    • It's worse. You think this is fraud on the part of Musk, but in fact it's actually delusion on behalf of the financial industry. Musk can't value his company, that's up to other people to do, and other people who have more dollars than sense pushed that valuation to that point by giving them money.

  • 3M and M&M have merged to form, get this... Ultradyne Systems

  • "Musk Unloads X" (Score:3)

    by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Friday March 28, 2025 @08:36PM (#65266921)
    There, fixed the headline. But really, this is just a way of extracting some xAI startup capital to put out the burning dumpster Twitter fire that should have cost Musk $30B. This is how billionaires act. They never use their own money for investments. (when republicans claim rich are boost the economy, that's a lie). The mega rich create portfolios and sell shares to investors, then skim management fees. When shit goes sideways someone else gets stuck with the bill. Quite literally, someone else's money in xAI bailed out any Musk losses from X. Often these "other people's money" are really corporate investors playing with your 401K $$. Being able to grab the hundreds of billions in Social Security $$ and play with it while extracting management fees is their wet dream through privatization.

  • It's always forward bullshitting with this guy.

  • Twitter's value was diminished so much after Leon took the helm that it was worth a fraction of some tech start-up that hasn't yet reached version 1.0 ?

  • now xAI investors fund X... sweet... (Score:3)

    by Lavandera ( 7308312 ) on Saturday March 29, 2025 @02:36AM (#65267315)

    Did xAI investors expected that Musk will fund X failure with their money?

    Or will it be a new integration - new level of political propaganda and censorship on X with the help of xAI ?

    Propaganda-as-a-Service available to a dictator near you!

    • He will probably claim that new content is being created in Twitter every minute and that it will be exclusively used by xai for training.

  • The new AI bots will be able to delete tweets and ban leftest users off the platform in record time, before you even get a chance to see the tweets. So much for the First Amendment rights that Musk always claims he supports

Slashdot Top Deals

"The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults." -- Peter De Vries

Close