Musk's xAI buys his social media platform X

Elon Musk says that his AI venture xAI has acquired his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

In an X post Friday, Musk said the all-stock transaction values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion.

Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter in 2022.

"xAI and X's futures are intertwined," Musk wrote on X Friday. "Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent."

The move may be aimed at protecting investors, who helped him buy purchase X, from losing money.

Both X and xAI are privately held and share some major investors. They also share significant resources.

"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," Musk wrote.

XAI has used data from social media posts on X to train its models, and its chatbot Grok is a prominent feature on the platform.

"The move appears sensible, considering the current trend of increased investments in AI, data centres, and computing," said analyst Paolo Pescatore, founder of PP Foresight.