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What to Know About Elon Musk’s Merger of SpaceX With His AI Company by Laurence Darmiento

Elon Musk recently announced what seemed like an odd pairing of his companies: SpaceX was acquiring xAI, the artificial intelligence firm that also owns the social media platform X. The merger combines a highly profitable rocket company with an AI startup that is burning through billions of dollars as it competes with OpenAI and other rivals for dominance in artificial intelligence. The merged companies are valued at $1.25 trillion. That is higher than recent separate valuations of SpaceX at $800 billion and xAI’s holding company at $230 billion. IPO shares are expected to price at roughly $525. Aside from the financial benefits, there are technical reasons. Musk has sketched out a futuristic plan that involves sending up to a million satellites — called data centers — into an orbit, where the sun could power them all day and night while they do artificial intelligence computations. What to know about Elon Musk’s merger of SpaceX with his AI company

Elon Musk Combined SpaceX and xAI

In the rare mega-merger of companies run by the same guy, Musk has brought together his rocket company, which has been planning an IPO, and his AI company, which is best known for Grok, the off-color chatbot that’s good at generating NSFW images. Sources told Bloomberg that the deal, which merges two of the world’s largest private companies, values the combined company at $1.25 trillion. Musk said the tie-up would help him put data centers in space, funding bases on the moon and a colony on Mars. He also said the combination would provide scale “to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” Morning Brew

Announcing Grok 3 and Grok 3 Mini on Azure AI Foundry

Microsoft and xAI are thrilled to unveil the availability of Grok 3 and Grok 3 Mini into the Azure AI Foundry Models, marking a significant milestone in AI accessibility and innovation. This collaboration combines xAI’s cutting-edge models with Azure’s enterprise-ready infrastructure, giving developers access to Grok 3’s advanced capabilities in a secure, scalable environment.  Grok models enable a range of enterprise scenarios with advanced capabilities in reasoning, coding, and visual processing. Announcing Grok 3 and Grok 3 Mini on Azure AI Foundry | Azure AI Foundry Blog

Remembering the Solemn Purpose of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the last Monday in May to honor and mourn U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. The holiday traces its roots to the years immediately following the American Civil War (1861–1865), which caused massive casualties—roughly 620,000 soldiers dead, about 2% of the U.S. population at the time. Communities across the North and South began spontaneously decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers, wreaths, and flags, a practice that gave rise to the original name: Decoration Day. On May 5, 1868, Major General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—a powerful Union veterans’ organization—issued General Order No. 11. This proclaimed May 30, 1868, as a nationwide “Decoration Day” to honor those who died in the Civil War. After World War I, the holiday expanded to honor all American service members who died in any war, not just the Civil War.  In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act to create more three-day weekends for federal employees. This moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, effective in 1971, when it was also officially named “Memorial Day.” As one 1868 quote put it: “That Nation which respects and honors its dead, shall ever be respected and honored itself.”