Musk’s xAI Merger Poses Bigger Threat to OpenAI, Anthropic

For much of the past three years, Elon Musk’s xAI has tried to compete against the leading AI labs, including OpenAI, the company he co-founded and later clashed with. The results have been mixed: xAI’s flagship product, the chatbot Grok, has made headlines for antisemetic responses and sexualized images that have overshadowed its technological advances.

Now, Musk is attempting to supercharge his efforts to build more powerful AI systems with help from one of his most successful ventures. On Monday, he announced xAI would be merging with SpaceX, creating a combined company valued at $1.25 trillion. The tie-up is poised ...