Elon Musk reportedly wants banks advising on SpaceX IPO to use Grok

Musk says advisers on IPO are required to have subscriptions to xAI's chatbot, New York Times reports.

As Elon Musk's SpaceX prepares for what could become the largest initial public offering in history, the billionaire may be seeking to boost subscriptions to Grok, a chatbot developed by his artificial intelligence company xAI.

Musk is inviting Wall Street advisers to work on the IPO on the condition that they purchase subscriptions to Grok, The New York Times reported.

Citing anonymous sources not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, the Times reported that banks, law firms, auditors and other advisers were required to buy Grok's services. Banks were also reportedly asked to advertise on Musk's social media platform X. So far, five banks are expected to work on SpaceX's IPO, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

The move follows weeks of heightened scrutiny aimed at Grok.

In January, an analysis by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated that it generated 3 million sexualized images in just 11 days, including 23,000 of children. Democrats in the Texas House called on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate allegations that Grok was being used to churn out explicit images. And Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk's children, sued xAI, alleging Grok created images of her undressed.

The chatbot also drew criticism earlier after it made comments about Adolf Hitler in response to a post about Central Texas flooding in July, insulted Turkey's president and called Poland's prime minister a derogatory slur.

Still, Grok continues to be marketed as a "truth-seeking AI chatbot." In addition to individual use, xAI launched Grok Business late last year for enterprise customers. Pricing starts at $30 per seat, per month, for small teams, while enterprise pricing is not publicly listed.

Earlier this year, SpaceX acquired xAI in a deal that valued the combined company at $1.25 trillion. But Grok faces competition from other AI models, including OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. The companies behind those tools have also reportedly explored going public as early as this year.

Meanwhile, xAI has been touting Grok's new features, including what it describes as its most advanced image generation model. Musk also highlighted a new version of the app released late last week.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported IPO condition.