Elon Musk is reportedly forcing banks, auditors, and law firms working on the upcoming SpaceX IPO to subscribe to X’s controversial in-house chatbot Grok.
As per reports by The New York Times, many of the banks involved in the offering, which could be worth over two trillion when finalized, have agreed to spend “tens of millions” on the chatbot. The firms have already started integrating Grok into their IT systems in some cases, according to anonymous sources who spoke to The Times.
Musk also requested that the banks advertise on X, though this request was reportedly less of an emphasis. These firms have a big incentive to follow through on these requests. It’s common for financial services firms working on an IPO to take a cut of transactions, which could mean substantial fees for a deal of this size. The news comes after SpaceX and xAI—the company behind X and Grok—merged in February, a partnership which Musk claims could one day lead to data centres in Earth’s orbit.
Neither SpaceX nor Musk has yet publicly commented on the reports. Some of the biggest names in finance, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Bank of America, have been confirmed to be working on the deal.
The news comes as the chatbot appears to be looking to push further into the corporate world. Bloomberg reported last month that xAI had posted a job listing looking for Wall Street bankers, portfolio managers, traders, and credit analysts to help teach the tool about the world of financial services. In January, Grok launched new Business and Enterprise plans aimed at corporations. These plans offered additional security measures and the promise of not training Grok on users’ interactions with the tool. Enterprise subscribers also gained access to features such as custom single sign-on (SSO), directory sync (SCIM), as well as extra auditing controls.
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Grok, which launched in November 2023, has inspired significant controversy. The chatbot made headlines in January for allegedly generating sexually suggestive images of minors in bikinis, inspiring investigations and legal challenges across the planet.
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