Sources: Musk requires banks seeking roles in SpaceX's IPO to subscribe to Grok and advertise on X; some banks are spending tens of millions integrating Grok
Mr. Musk is requiring Wall Street firms to purchase subscriptions to his A.I. chatbot if they want to advise on one of the largest initial public offerings in history.
New York Times Maureen Farrell
Related Coverage
- Elon Musk Leverages SpaceX's Record IPO To Force Banks Into Grok Subscriptions: Report Benzinga · Mohd Haider
- Elon Musk insists banks working on SpaceX IPO must buy Grok subscriptions Ars Technica · Jon Brodkin
- Musk Demands Wall Street Buy Grok AI Subscriptions to Work on SpaceX IPO crypto.news · Peace Longe
- Elon Musk Requires Banks Behind SpaceX IPO To Buy Grok Subscriptions, Report Says Forbes · Ty Roush
- Musk Sets Condition for Banks to Share in SpaceX's IPO Newser · Bob Cronin
- Banks working on the SpaceX IPO reportedly have to subscribe to Grok Engadget · Will Shanklin
- That's one way to juice Grok's numbers. The Verge · Jay Peters
- Musk asks SpaceX IPO banks to buy Grok AI subscriptions, NYT reports Reuters · Savyata Mishra
- What to know about Gwynne Shotwell, the woman behind SpaceX's monster IPO Fortune · Emma Hinchliffe
Discussion
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@rmac18
Ryan Mac
on x
Elon is making the banks who want to work on SpaceX's IPO subscribe to Grok. Some of those banks are paying tens of millions of dollars for the chatbot. He's also asked that they advertise on X. Scoop from @maureenmfarrell. [image]
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@ikrietzberg
Ian Krietzberg
on x
So that's one way to grow a user base
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@larakate
Lara Cohen
on x
Crap on pre Elon twitter all you want, but we had a $6 billion dollar sales business that didn't rely on extortion to get deals done 🤷🏻♀️
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@mikeisaac
Rat King
on x
i cant recall witnessing a funnier IPO humiliation ritual than seeing all the big banks prostrating themselves in front of senpai musk to take his company public [image]
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@hshaban
Hamza Shaban
on x
If you want to make money from the SpaceX IPO, you have to pay a Musk tax Musk is making banks and law firms helping SpaceX go public buy subscriptions to Grok, his AI chatbot, the NYT reports Some of the banks agreed to spend tens of millions on Grok, juicing his finances
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@theo_wayt
Theo Wayt
on x
Good story. When I reported on xAI's enterprise business a few months ago (pre-SpaceX merger), Morgan Stanley was one of the few significant enterprise customers I could find. Even at Tesla, many engineers were choosing Claude over Grok. https://www.theinformation.com/ ... [image…
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@xlr8harder
@xlr8harder
on x
Generational hustler
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@andrewcurran_
Andrew Curran
on x
NYT: ‘Mr. Musk is requiring banks, law firms, auditors and other advisers working on the I.P.O. to buy subscriptions to Grok, his artificial intelligence chatbot that is part of SpaceX’ [image]
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@ianbetteridge.com
Ian Betteridge
on bluesky
What an absolutely pathetic little man Musk is. [embedded post]
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@bluespacecanary
@bluespacecanary
on bluesky
I know it doesn't actually matter because Obama, Trump, and Biden's DoJs all declared Musk effectively above the law, but isn't this like, super illegal? [embedded post]
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@quinnypig.com
Corey Quinn
on bluesky
I'm nostalgic for the days when the grift was behind closed doors. [embedded post]
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@paularmstrongtbd
Paul Armstrong
on bluesky
He continues to just get worse and worse. Also any bank that uses Grok is a bank that will not keep my business for long. Absolute madness on any risk register. [embedded post]
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@jasoncross.org
Jason Cross
on bluesky
If you have to coerce someone into using your product, then your product sucks. [embedded post]
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@rmac
Ryan Mac
on bluesky
Elon Musk is making the big banks who want work on SpaceX's IPO subscribe to Grok. Some of those banks will now pay tens of millions in dollars annually for the chatbot. — Business! — www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/b...