SpaceX Readies Expansion of Grok AI Model

SpaceX Readies Expansion of Grok AI Model

SpaceX is expanding access to its latest AI model after positive feedback in beta testing.

Grok 4.5 will become available to the public Thursday (July 9), SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on the company-owned social media platform X early Wednesday (July 8).

“It is an Opus-class model, but faster, more token-efficient and lower cost,” Musk wrote.

The trillionaire had announced late last month that the model had entered private beta testing at SpaceX and Tesla, saying it could rival Anthropic’s Claude Opus.

A report Wednesday on the rollout from Seeking Alpha, citing Apptopia data, notes that the number of average daily users for the Grok app has fallen 28% since April. The app’s market share was at 8.7% last month, down from 10.6% in May, the report added, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT held the top ranking among American market share in June.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that SpaceX had developed a handset-style AI device and shown the prototype to investors before going public.

The device, said to be slimmer than an iPhone, was built to run on a proprietary operating system and integrates AI technology from SpaceX’s xAI, sources told the news outlet.

Musk later denied the report, calling it “utterly false” in a post on X, leading to a drop in SpaceX’s share price.

PYMNTS wrote last week about the potential behind such a device, pointing out that SpaceX controls Starlink, a satellite network with global coverage, and is building direct-to-cell service that allows phones to connect to satellites without a terrestrial carrier.

And SpaceX’s merger with xAI in February, a deal said to value the combined company at around $1.25 trillion, gives it direct access to Grok.

“A consumer device connecting to all three would give SpaceX a hardware endpoint that bypasses both the app stores and cellular carriers,” the report said, adding that no existing AI advice offers that combination.

“SpaceX went public in June in a record-setting initial public offering (IPO),” the report added. “A public company’s investor narrative carries different weight than a private one. A phone-shaped slot in the IPO pitch deck, with xAI models inside and Qualcomm silicon underneath, frames SpaceX as a vertical platform company rather than a launch and connectivity provider.”

The report also noted the uneven track record of AI devices.

“From Google Glass to the Humane AI Pin, the pattern is consistent. Consumers don’t adopt hardware because it’s futuristic,” PYMNTS wrote. “They adopt it because it solves a problem better than what they already carry.