By Elon Musk is telling Wall Street banks and advisors that if they want to help manage the upcoming SpaceX stock launch, they have to buy expensive subscriptions to his artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok. The SpaceX deal is expected to be one of the biggest in history, potentially valuing the company at over a trillion dollars. Because the banks stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars in advisory fees, many have eagerly agreed to Musk’s demand. Some are already spending tens of millions of dollars to add Grok into their own computer systems.
While companies often ask for small favors from their bankers, Musk is strictly requiring these purchases rather than treating them as friendly gestures. He is also asking the banks to advertise on his social media platform, X, though he is not pushing quite as hard for that.
This forced subscription strategy gives Grok a massive financial boost right before SpaceX goes public. Grok, which recently merged into SpaceX, has struggled to keep up with competitors like ChatGPT and has faced heavy criticism recently for creating offensive and inappropriate content. By forcing these major banks to become paying business customers, Musk is quickly bringing in new enterprise revenue to make his AI service look stronger for the IPO.