As Grok flounders, SpaceX bets future on beating Big Tech at AI
Summary
SpaceX is focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) as its main future business, aiming at a very large market opportunity. The company owns the AI division SpaceXAI, which runs the Grok chatbot, but Grok has so far had limited success compared to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.Key Facts
- SpaceX sees AI as its biggest growth area, estimating a potential market worth $26.5 trillion, close to the size of the US economy.
- SpaceX acquired the AI startup xAI earlier in 2026; Grok chatbot is developed by SpaceXAI, the division created from that acquisition.
- Grok chatbot has low user adoption, with only 0.174% of surveyed US users paying for it in early 2026; OpenAI’s ChatGPT had over 6%.
- Corporate use of competing AI tools Claude (Anthropic) and Gemini (Google) has grown much faster than Grok’s.
- The US government rarely uses Grok, with only three public mentions out of 400 AI uses in federal agencies in 2025.
- Grok had a controversy in early 2026 for allowing users to create inappropriate images, leading to lawsuits and regulatory bans in the EU.
- SpaceX introduced business and government-targeted versions of Grok hoping to gain more customers.
- Elon Musk has described xAI as a small player in the AI industry during legal proceedings related to his lawsuit against OpenAI.
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