Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, in a record-setting deal that unifies the billionaire¡¯s AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot.

The ?deal, first reported last week, represents one of the most ambitious tie-ups in the ?technology sector ?yet, combining a space-and-defense contractor with a fast-growing AI developer whose costs are ?largely driven by chips, data centers and energy.

It could also bolster SpaceX¡¯s data-center ambitions as Musk competes with rivals such as Alphabet¡¯s Google, Meta, Amazon-backed Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI sector.