Last week, Elon Musk’s X began giving subscribers to its premium, advertising-free version access to a new feature: Grok, a sassy artificial intelligence chatbot created by xAI, a separate AI startup that Musk founded. To some, it wasn’t clear why mashing together the chatbot with the service formerly known as Twitter—or for that matter with Tesla products, as xAI has hinted—made sense.
“I don’t see what Grok is solving,” said Ross Gerber, whose firm, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, holds stakes in X and Tesla, the electric vehicle maker Musk leads.
At the same time, the arrangement was a classic Musk move: He’s using one of his companies to scratch the back of another of his companies. The integration into X could give the chatbot access to the kind of audience most nine-month-old startups can only dream of. It was another example of the porous boundaries between the many companies Musk leads or controls—a half-dozen by last count. Personnel and board members freely float between them. Musk companies are often customers of other Musk companies.
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