Elon Musk announced that his artificial intelligence company, xAI, has acquired his social media platform, X, in an all-stock deal. The transaction values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, after accounting for $12 billion in debt. Musk stated that the futures of xAI and X are intertwined and that the combination will unlock immense potential by merging xAI’s advanced AI capabilities with X’s extensive reach.

Musk originally purchased X, formerly known as Twitter, for $44 billion in October 2022. Since then, he has made significant changes to the platform, including reducing its trust and safety team and integrating xAI’s large language model chatbot, Grok. Despite challenges such as increased hate speech and advertiser exodus, X held a $6 billion stake in xAI prior to the acquisition.

The acquisition aims to blend xAI’s AI expertise with X’s user base, enhancing both companies’ potential. This move mirrors Musk’s previous acquisition of SolarCity by Tesla in 2016, which faced shareholder lawsuits but was ultimately successful. Corporate law experts suggest that this deal may reduce the visibility of a troublesome asset while potentially over-hyping xAI’s value.