Elon Said He Sold X to xAI

Frank Dappah
Mar 29
3 min read

What This Means for AI, Data Privacy, and the Future of Social Media

Did Elon Musk sell X to his AI company?

In March 2025, Elon Musk announced that his AI company, xAI acquired social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction valued at $33 billion, including $12.5 billion in debt. Musk framed the deal as a move to accelerate xAI's mission of creating safe, cutting-edge artificial intelligence while integrating real-world interactions at scale.

Why did Elon Musk sell X to himself?

Musk explained that by combining xAI’s technical capabilities with X’s 600 million monthly users, the merged company can “build AI tools that understand the world better.” But critics have raised questions: Is this about innovation or consolidation? And what happens to all that user data?

Supercharged AI With a Side of Tweets

With access to massive real-time conversational data, xAI gains a powerful advantage in training AI models like its Grok chatbot and its Aurora text-to-image model. X's data—from likes to retweets to user sentiment—provides invaluable context for language models and image generators alike.

This integration gives xAI what many startups and research labs lack: dynamic, unfiltered human data. In essence, xAI is no longer training AI about the internet; it's training AI inside the internet.

Privacy is the Price

This influx of data also presents a serious concern: user privacy. When a company owns both the model and the data pipeline, it gains a degree of control rarely seen in tech.

As The Verge notes, xAI now has access to everything from public tweets to user location metadata—raising ethical red flags over the use of personal content to train AI models. And while Musk claims that user privacy will be respected, history suggests otherwise.

A 2023 report by Pew Research found that 81% of Americans are concerned about companies using their data to train AI systems—particularly when transparency is lacking.

Misinformation Could Multiply

AI tools that generate content at scale are often error-prone or worse—persuasive and wrong. According to MIT Technology Review, AI-generated misinformation spreads 6 times faster than factual posts.

By embedding AI like Grok into the X platform, there's a risk of misinformation being generated, circulated, and amplified by algorithms with minimal oversight. And unlike traditional news sources, AI doesn't always have clear editorial standards.

“If AI systems are optimized for engagement, they may prioritize controversy over accuracy,” said Timnit Gebru, founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute.

The Corporate Chessboard

On the surface, this looks like one billionaire moving money from one pocket to another. But the consolidation of Musk’s holdings may resemble the playbook used during Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity, where the deal enabled operational synergies and tighter control.

Some analysts speculate that Musk’s goal is to create a unified platform encompassing real-time communication, AI development, financial services, and autonomous systems. Think X meets GPT meets PayPal meets Tesla—a Muskiverse super app.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino stated, “The future could not be brighter,” citing innovation and synergy as key benefits.

Looking Ahead

The xAI–X merger isn’t just a tech acquisition—it’s a realignment of power between data, platforms, and intelligence. Whether this creates a next-gen social platform or a cautionary tale depends on how transparency, ethics, and oversight are handled from here forward.

For consumers and regulators alike, the challenge is now clear: how do we keep AI accountable when it controls the medium, the message, and the minds?