Musk asks SpaceX IPO banks to buy Grok AI subscriptions, NYT reports


FILE PHOTO: SpaceX's logo and an Elon Musk photo are seen in this illustration created on December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo

April 3 (Reuters) - Elon ⁠Musk is requiring banks and other advisers ⁠working on SpaceX’s planned IPO to buy subscriptions ‌to Grok, his artificial intelligence chatbot, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Some banks ​have agreed to spend tens ⁠of millions of dollars ⁠a year on the chatbot and have begun ⁠integrating it ‌into their IT systems, the report said.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank ⁠of America and Citigroup are serving as ​active bookrunners, ‌or the lead banks managing the deal, Reuters ⁠reported earlier ​this week.

Musk and SpaceX did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and ⁠Bank of America declined to ​comment. Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries.

The Starbase, Texas-headquartered rocket maker boosted its target initial ⁠public offering valuation above $2 trillion, according to a Bloomberg News report a day earlier, setting the stage for what could become the largest stock ​market listing on record.

The company ⁠aims to raise a record $75 billion, which would dwarf ​previous mega-IPOs such as Saudi ‌Aramco in 2019 and Alibaba ​in 2014.

(Reporting by Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Mark Porter)

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