Cognition CEO rejects claims SpaceX attempted to acquire startup

Elon Musk’s SpaceX was reported by Bloomberg to have attempted to acquire AI coding startup Cognition as it seeks to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google in the AI race. However, Cognition CEO Scott Wu denied the report, stating the story was inaccurate and that the company is not for sale, with no discussions between the two firms. The report follows SpaceX’s recent $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, another AI coding startup, which closed last week. SpaceX had previously acquired Musk’s AI company, xAI, earlier this year, and it went public in June with a market cap reaching nearly $2.3 trillion at its peak. Despite its AI ambitions, including plans for space-based data centers, xAI remains in an early stage and has lagged behind competitors. SpaceX’s chatbot Grok has also faced controversies, including incidents involving nonconsensual sexual imagery. Musk recently told employees that AI will account for 99% of SpaceX’s value in about four to five years, but achieving this will require significant AI-driven revenue. AI-assisted coding has become a key monetization strategy, as seen with Anthropic’s growth driven by Claude Code. Cursor and SpaceX had been collaborating before the acquisition, and they jointly released Grok 4.6, a model that performs better on coding and complex tasks. Acquiring Cognition, which has an enterprise customer base including Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and Goldman Sachs, would have helped SpaceX deepen its AI coding efforts. Bloomberg reported that the acquisition talks are no longer active, though the companies are still discussing potential collaboration, with Cognition possibly using SpaceX’s computing resources. Cognition, which recently raised $1 billion at a $25 billion valuation, is now in early talks for a new round at $40 billion. The company acquired the remaining assets of competitor Windsurf after Google DeepMind acquired its CEO and top researchers in a $2.4 billion deal. Following the merger, Cognition laid off 30 employees and offered buyouts to the remaining 200 Windsurf employees, with those who stayed facing strict work expectations, including over 80 hours per week and six days in the office. SpaceX and Cognition did not respond to requests for comment.