According to reports, Elon Musk’s SpaceX made an attempt to acquire AI coding firm Cognition as it seeks to catch up with major players in the AI field like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
Cognition’s CEO, Scott Wu, quickly refuted these claims on X, stating that the company is “not for sale” and asserting that there have been no discussions between the two firms.
This news follows SpaceX’s recent $60 billion acquisition of another AI coding startup, Cursor, which was finalized last week.
Earlier this year, SpaceX also acquired Musk’s AI venture, xAI, which had a successful public offering in June, reaching a market cap of nearly $2.3 trillion at its peak.
SpaceX has been promoting its ambitions in AI, planning to establish data centers in space, though its xAI business is still in the early stages and remains behind some of its competitors.
The company has faced challenges, particularly with its chatbot Grok, which has been involved in controversies, including past incidents that could hinder its efforts to attract enterprise clients.
In a recent address to employees, Musk estimated that AI will represent 99% of SpaceX’s value within four or five years, though he acknowledged the need to generate significantly more revenue from AI to accomplish this.
AI-powered coding is proving to be a notable avenue for monetization, as highlighted by the rapid rise of Anthropic, driven largely by Claude Code. The acquisition of Cursor fits into this strategy, given their prior collaboration. Recently, they launched Grok 4.6, which excels in coding and more complex tasks.
If SpaceX had brought Cognition and its coding agent Devin into the fold—along with its enterprise clients like Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and Goldman Sachs—it would have expanded its reach in the AI coding landscape.
While Bloomberg suggests that discussions regarding a deal are no longer active, there may still be opportunities for collaboration, potentially involving Cognition utilizing SpaceX’s computing resources, which are currently being offered to other AI companies until SpaceX needs them. Wu’s denial did not specifically address this possibility.
Cognition stands out as one of the largest independent AI coding firms that hasn’t yet been acquired by a major player. Recently, the company completed a $1 billion funding round at a valuation of $25 billion, and it is reportedly in early discussions for a new funding round aiming for a $40 billion valuation.
Last year, Cognition made headlines after acquiring the remaining assets of a competitor, Windsurf, following a major talent acquisition by Google DeepMind.
After the acquisition, Cognition made cuts, laying off 30 employees and offering buyouts to the remaining 200 Windsurf staff, who then faced demanding work conditions.
This rigorous work ethic aligns with Musk’s own extreme commitment to his work, often reported to be as many as 120 hours a week.
Neither SpaceX nor Cognition provided comments when approached for clarification.
