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Opinion | Hillary Clinton: This Is Just Dumb

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Michael_Novakhov
7 hours ago
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Putin threatens striking Western air bases hosting Ukrainian F-16s

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Michael_Novakhov
23 hours ago
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Elon Musk's AI startup acquires X in deal that values social media platform at $33 billion

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Elon Musk said Friday that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, had acquired his social media platform, X.

He said that the deal was an all-stock transaction that valued X at $33 billion.

"xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent," Musk wrote in a post on X.

The deal combines two of Musk's most high-profile companies, but because they are not publicly traded, no details about the deal were made public outside of Musk's post. It's unclear if the deal included any immediate windfall for Musk.

X recently raised $1 billion from investors, valuing it at $44 billion, according to Bloomberg. Musk took X (then Twitter) private in 2022 at nearly the same valuation. Musk was recently served with an SEC summons in the long-running lawsuit over Musk's alleged failure to disclose his ownership in Twitter before bidding to buy it entirely.

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, reposted Musk's message adding: "The future could not be brighter."

Musk launched xAI in 2023 and rolled out Grok, an AI-powered chatbot similar to those from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and many other AI companies. Since then, Grok has been infused into X, with many users now often asking it to respond to posts and weigh in on arguments.

Musk has billed Grok as an anti-"woke" AI that is "truth-seeking," though it has been found to disagree with him on many issues.

"This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach," Must wrote. "The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge. This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress."

Amid the broader boom in AI companies, Musk's xAI has found interest from investors. Major Wall Street firms Blackrock, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, Sequoia Capital, and the top chip companies Nvidia and AMD invested in xAI in December. That funding took the AI company’s value to $45 billion. As recently as last month, reports said xAI was considering another fundraising round that would value the company at $75 billion.

The rush to develop — and invest in — advanced AI has included billions of dollars in plans to build out the computing power, electricity infrastructure and human capital necessary to develop increasingly powerful models capable of performing complex tasks. Money has poured into AI startups while tech giants including Google, Amazon and Meta have announced plans for significant spending on all things AI.

Meanwhile, both AI and Musk have grown more political. Musk has emerged as among the most high-profile of President Donald Trump's advisers, and Trump made AI a campaign issue, promising to rein in regulation. Just days into his second term, Trump signed an executive order aimed at undoing Biden administration efforts to put some safeguards on AI development while encouraging its growth.

Many AI and tech executives as well as technologists and industry watchdogs have warned about the implications of an all-out AI arms race, particularly as other countries including China are pushing to lead on the technology.

Jason Abbruzzese

Jason Abbruzzese is the assistant managing editor of tech and science for NBC News Digital.

Steve Kopack

Steve Kopack is a producer at NBC News covering business and the economy.

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Michael_Novakhov
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Ukraine claims to have fielded a drone-killing laser weapon

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Michael_Novakhov
4 days ago
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Huntington Ingalls Industries, U.S. shipbuilder, to develop anti-drone laser weapon for Army

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U.S. shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries announced this week that it will develop a new high-energy laser weapon for the Army to combat drones.

Huntington Ingalls said Monday that it will develop the weapons system for the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office. Its open architecture system will be capable of fixed-site defense and will easily integrate into Army vehicles, the company said.

“We are proud to provide a critical enabler for the Army, delivering an effective, interoperable, sustainable and scalable system that will meet force protection requirements and support U.S. strategic objectives,” said Grant Hagen, president of the Mission Technologies’ Warfare Systems division. “We look forward to collaborating with the RCCTO on this important effort that will protect the warfighter with an affordable counter-UAS solution.”

The company added that the open architecture design is perfectly in line with the goals of the Army.

“Aligned to the system’s Modular Open Systems Approach architecture, this data directly supports Army’s objectives for interoperability, affordability, scalability, supply chain resilience and rapid innovation,” a statement from Huntington Ingalls reads. “The weapon system will allow the Army to interchange subsystems and software as the weapon evolves to meet national security demands.”

Huntington Ingalls will develop a prototype laser system that can track and destroy unmanned aircraft. Before transitioning into low-rate initial production, the system will undergo field testing to determine its operational capabilities.

Huntington Ingalls’ new contract follows a solicitation last July in which RCCTO called on contractors to deliver white papers on systems that could defeat unmanned aircraft systems. The July solicitation asked specifically for fixed-site defense and rapid integration capabilities.

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Michael_Novakhov
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Kash Patel Reveals FBI's Top Priorities in First TV Interview As Director

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Michael_Novakhov
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