As Grok flounders, SpaceX bets future on beating Big Tech at AI

SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has identified artificial intelligence as a cornerstone of its future strategy, aiming to tap into a market opportunity estimated in the trillions—potentially rivaling the entire U.S. economy. However, the company faces a significant challenge in attracting users who often gravitate towards established AI models from competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. In recent financial disclosures, SpaceX characterized its traditional operations in space launch and satellite services as secondary to its emerging AI business, which has gained more prominence following its acquisition of Musk's xAI earlier this year. This new SpaceX AI division is responsible for overseeing the Grok AI models and the Grok chatbot, previously developed by xAI. The S-1 filing from SpaceX asserted that the company is positioned within what it claims is "the largest actionable total addressable market in human history," with AI representing a substantial portion of this, estimated at an eye-watering $26.5 trillion—almost matching the U.S. nominal GDP of approximately $32 trillion recorded in early 2026. While the precise timeframe for this estimate remains ambiguous, it significantly overshadows third-party forecasts for the global AI market. For instance, Gartner projects worldwide AI spending to hit $3.3 trillion by 2027, while Citigroup anticipates it could exceed $4.2 trillion by 2030. To realize its ambitious goals, SpaceX must contend with well-established competitors, many of whom are backed by major tech firms. Musk previously referred to xAI as "the smallest of the AI companies" during legal proceedings involving his lawsuit against OpenAI, indicating the uphill battle ahead. The Grok AI chatbot has struggled to gain traction compared to other available AI services. An AppMagic survey indicated that only 0.174 percent of 260,000 U.S. consumers and workers opted to pay for Grok's services in the second quarter of 2026, in stark contrast to over 6 percent who paid for OpenAI’s ChatGPT.