Elon Musk’s SpaceX reportedly attempted to acquire the AI coding startup Cognition, a strategic move aimed at accelerating its position in the fiercely competitive artificial intelligence landscape against industry leaders like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. This information was disclosed on Wednesday by Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the discussions.
However, Cognition CEO Scott Wu swiftly disputed the report upon its publication. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Wu stated that the story was inaccurate, affirming that Cognition "is not for sale" and that no talks had occurred between the two companies.
This news surfaced just days after SpaceX finalized its acquisition of Cursor, another AI coding startup, in a deal reportedly valued at $60 billion that concluded last week.
Earlier this year, SpaceX had already integrated xAI, Elon Musk's dedicated artificial intelligence venture. xAI subsequently launched a blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) in June, with its market capitalization soaring to a peak of nearly $2.3 trillion.
While SpaceX has successfully presented its ambitious AI vision to investors, which includes eventual plans for establishing data centers in space, the xAI business currently remains in a relatively early stage of development and lags behind its more established competitors.
Furthermore, xAI's chatbot, Grok, has faced considerable challenges due to its propensity for generating controversial content. Notable incidents include the "MechaHitler" controversy last year and more recent scandals involving nonconsensual sexual imagery, complicating its efforts to attract and secure enterprise clients.
Just last week, Mr. Musk conveyed to SpaceX employees his belief that within "four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value" of the company. However, realizing this ambitious projection necessitates a significant increase in AI-generated revenue for SpaceX.
AI-assisted coding has rapidly emerged as one of the most direct and effective avenues for monetizing artificial intelligence. The rapid expansion of companies like Anthropic, significantly driven by its Claude Code offering, serves as compelling evidence of this trend. Integrating Cursor was a strategic component of this monetization strategy, with the two companies having collaborated prior to the acquisition's finalization. This month, Cursor and SpaceX jointly launched Grok 4.6, a new model demonstrating enhanced performance in coding benchmarks and complex multi-step agentic tasks.
Acquiring Cognition, along with its advanced coding agent Devin and an impressive roster of enterprise clients such as Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and Goldman Sachs, would have provided SpaceX with a further strategic advantage to intensify its focus on AI coding and more effectively vie for high-value enterprise accounts.
Despite the cessation of acquisition discussions, Bloomberg's report indicates that the companies are still exploring potential collaborative opportunities. One such possibility involves Cognition leveraging SpaceX's substantial computing capacity, which SpaceX is currently offering to other AI industry participants, including Anthropic, until it requires the full capacity for its own operations. Mr. Wu did not specifically address this particular claim in his public denial.
Cognition stands out as one of the most prominent independent AI software coding startups yet to be acquired by a major AI model developer. The company successfully secured a $1 billion funding round in late May, achieving a post-money valuation of $25 billion. Bloomberg further reports that Cognition is currently engaged in preliminary discussions for another funding round, potentially at an impressive $40 billion valuation.
Cognition garnered significant attention last year when it moved to acquire the remaining assets of its competitor, Windsurf. This followed a substantial $2.4 billion "acqui-hire" by Google DeepMind, which secured Windsurf's CEO and key research talent, along with associated licensing rights.
Following that merger, Cognition implemented significant operational changes, including laying off 30 employees and offering buyouts to the remaining 200 Windsurf personnel. Employees who opted to stay were reportedly subject to stringent operational demands, such as workweeks exceeding 80 hours and mandatory six-day office attendance.
Such an intense, "wartime" work ethic would align with the known culture of an Elon Musk-led enterprise, given Musk's own public statements about working up to 120 hours per week and frequently sleeping at his office or factory locations.
Neither SpaceX nor Cognition provided a response to requests for comment regarding these developments.
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