SpaceX may soon acquire the digital remains of failed startups, turning their customer files and operational logs into training fuel for its Grok AI model. Internal discussions about such purchases have taken place, though no formal agreement has emerged, according to Bloomberg.
The talks center on SpaceXAI, formerly xAI, the artificial intelligence arm behind Grok. Executives see these distressed data assets as a low-cost way to expand the model’s knowledge base. SpaceX offered no comment when Bloomberg reached out.
The playbook resembles Google’s $10 million bid for Spirit Airlines’ records after the carrier collapsed. That archive contained 100 million emails and 500 million Teams messages before a rival bidder topped the offer. Yet SpaceXAI isn’t competing in a single auction. It’s sketching a repeatable strategy.
This marks a notable pivot. Grok previously learned from X posts and from in-house contractors called AI tutors. Hiring for that tutor team stalled in June, and Jack Garabedian, a Starlink staffer, now leads the effort.
Dead companies carry different data histories, and European regulators notice the difference. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission opened an inquiry in April 2025 into whether EU and EEA users’ public posts were lawfully used to train Grok. The watchdog had already invoked emergency High Court powers against X the prior August.
Musk has telegraphed the broader goal. In August, he told employees that Grok would eventually train on “the sum total of all SpaceX information,” staff included, per Bloomberg. Buying a defunct startup extends that reach to other companies’ customers.
SpaceXAI’s European privacy notice claims legitimate interests as its legal basis for model improvement. It designates a US entity as controller for European users and processes everything in American data centers.
Meanwhile, the European Data Protection Board’s 2024 opinion hinges on reasonable expectations. A customer of a company that no longer exists has none regarding Grok. Consent doesn’t transfer with a database sale either. Any buyer becomes a new controller and must establish its own lawful basis. That regulatory hurdle may prove harder than the purchase price.
