Elon Musk’s SpaceX tried to amass AI coding startup Cognition as it really works to catch as much as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google within the AI race, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing sources acquainted with the matter.
Cognition CEO Scott Wu disputed the report quickly after it printed, writing on X that the story was inaccurate and that Cognition “is not for sale,” including that the 2 corporations haven’t been in talks.
The report comes just a few days after SpaceX’s $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, one other AI coding startup, whose deal closed final week.
SpaceX acquired Musk’s AI firm, xAI, earlier this 12 months. It then went public in a blockbuster IPO in June, with its market capitalization rising to just about $2.3 trillion at its peak.
SpaceX has bought buyers on its AI ambitions, which embrace finally constructing information facilities in area. However the xAI enterprise stays comparatively early-stage and has fallen behind opponents.
It’s additionally needed to deal with its chatbot Grok’s penchant for controversy, together with final 12 months’s “MechaHitler” incident and this 12 months’s nonconsensual sexual imagery scandals, because it tries to win over enterprise clients.
Final week, Musk told SpaceX’s employees that in about “4 or 5 years, AI might be 99% of the worth” of the corporate, however attaining that feat would require SpaceX to drag in far more income from AI.
AI-assisted coding has emerged as one of many clearest methods to monetize the expertise. Anthropic’s meteoric development, fueled largely by Claude Code, is proof of that. Bringing Cursor into the fold was a part of that equation, and the businesses have been already working collectively earlier than the acquisition closed. This month, Cursor and SpaceX collectively launched Grok 4.6, a brand new mannequin that scores increased on benchmarks for coding and complicated multi-step agentic duties.
Including Cognition and its coding agent Devin — together with an enterprise buyer base that features Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and Goldman Sachs — would have given SpaceX one other approach to deepen its push into AI coding and compete for enterprise clients.
Bloomberg studies that the deal talks are now not lively, however that the businesses are nonetheless discussing working collectively — doubtlessly with Cognition utilizing SpaceX’s computing capability, which the corporate is promoting to different AI gamers like Anthropic till it wants that capability for itself. Wu didn’t handle this particular declare in his denial.
Cognition stays one of many largest impartial AI software program coding startups that hasn’t but been wolfed up by a serious AI mannequin maker. The corporate in late Might raised a $1 billion spherical at a $25 billion post-money valuation, and Bloomberg studies it’s now in early talks for a brand new spherical of funding at a $40 billion valuation.
Cognition made headlines final 12 months when it acquired the remaining property of competitor Windsurf after Google DeepMind acqui-hired the startup’s CEO and prime analysis in a $2.4 billion deal for expertise and licensing rights.
After the merger, Cognition laid off 30 workers and supplied buyouts to the remaining 200 Windsurf workers. Those that determined to remain confronted strict operational expectations, like a greater than 80-hour workweek and 6 days within the workplace.
That type of wartime work ethic wouldn’t be misplaced in a Musk firm. Musk has mentioned he works as much as 120 hours per week and sometimes sleeps on workplace or manufacturing facility flooring.
SpaceX and Cognition didn’t reply to requests for remark.
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