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Cognition CEO denies report of SpaceX acquisition talks
Cognition CEO Scott Wu pushed back on a report claiming SpaceX attempted to acquire the AI coding startup, saying the company is not for sale and no talks have taken place. The denial follows SpaceX's recent $60 billion acquisition of rival coding startup Cursor.
A Wednesday report claiming that SpaceX had attempted to acquire AI coding startup Cognition was quickly disputed by Cognition CEO Scott Wu. In a post on X, Wu said the story was inaccurate, that Cognition is not for sale, and that the two companies have not been in talks.
The report surfaced just days after SpaceX closed its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, another AI coding startup. That deal was part of a broader push by SpaceX to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities and compete with the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
Earlier this year, SpaceX acquired Elon Musk's AI company, xAI. The company then went public in a blockbuster IPO in June, and its market capitalization reportedly reached nearly $2.3 trillion at its peak.
SpaceX has pitched investors on ambitious AI plans, including the eventual construction of data centers in space. However, its xAI division remains relatively early-stage and has lagged behind rivals. The company has also faced controversies tied to its Grok chatbot, including last year's 'MechaHitler' incident and this year's nonconsensual sexual imagery scandals, as it works to attract enterprise customers.