Hard Fork

Kevin Roose × Casey Newton × Matt Schlicht

SpaceX’s reported all-stock acquisition of xAI, valuing the combined company at $1.25 trillion, gives a profitable rocket business financial cover for an AI lab’s enormous spending.Orbital compute offers a powerful IPO narrative and possible launch advantage, but terrestrial infrastructure remains “plan A” while X’s regulatory liabilities create accountability risks.Project Genie’s expensive 60-second worlds already rattled gaming stocks, raising a catalyst for interactive AI while leaving the economic impact on incumbent game companies unresolved.