Cognition CEO Denies Report That SpaceX Attempted to Acquire the Startup

Elon Musk's SpaceX reportedly attempted to acquire AI coding startup Cognition as part of its aggressive push to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google in the AI race. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported on Wednesday that SpaceX had held acquisition talks with the company behind the AI coding agent Devin. However, Cognition CEO Scott Wu swiftly disputed the report, taking to X to state that the story was inaccurate and that Cognition "is not for sale," adding that the two companies haven't been in talks. The report arrives just days after SpaceX closed its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, another prominent AI coding startup. That deal, announced in June shortly after SpaceX's blockbuster IPO, was finalized last week, marking a significant milestone in the company's AI strategy. SpaceX acquired Musk's AI venture, xAI, earlier this year, and its market capitalization soared to nearly $2.3 trillion at its peak following the IPO. SpaceX has convinced investors of its ambitious AI roadmap, which includes futuristic plans to build data centers in space. Yet, the xAI business remains relatively early-stage and has lagged behind competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. The company has also faced challenges with its chatbot Grok, including last year's "MechaHitler" controversy and this year's scandals involving nonconsensual sexual imagery, as it seeks to attract enterprise customers. Last week, Musk told SpaceX employees that "in about four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value" of the company, underscoring the strategic importance of AI to its future. However, achieving that vision will require SpaceX to dramatically boost revenue from AI offerings. AI-assisted coding has emerged as one of the most tangible avenues for monetizing AI technology, with Anthropic's rapid growth—fueled largely by its Claude Code product—serving as proof. Integrating Cursor was a key part of that strategy, and the two companies had already collaborated before the acquisition closed. This month, Cursor and SpaceX jointly released Grok 4.6, a new model that scores higher on benchmarks for coding and complex multi-step agentic tasks. Adding Cognition and its flagship product Devin—along with an enterprise customer base that includes Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and Goldman Sachs—would have given SpaceX another powerful channel to deepen its AI coding push and compete for enterprise clients. However, Bloomberg reports that acquisition talks are no longer active, though the companies are still discussing potential collaboration, possibly involving Cognition utilizing SpaceX's computing capacity. SpaceX has been selling this capacity to other AI players, like Anthropic, until it needs the resources for its own projects. Wu did not address this specific claim in his denial.

via TechCrunch AI