Even the company's own engineers don't use Grok! Musk intends to "take a shortcut" and spend 60 billion dollars to acquire Cursor to fill programming shortcomings.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI has been trying to persuade enterprise clients to use its Grok chat Siasun Robot&Automation to accelerate the programming process in recent months. However, even Musk's own employees are sometimes reluctant to do so, according to sources familiar with the matter. Some SpaceX engineers are progressing slowly in their technical work using Grok because it is not as effective as competitors' tools. Within the xAI department, some employees are instead using other AI alternatives, like Anthropic's Claude, for programming, rather than using Grok. AI programming tools that simplify the process of code writing and debugging have become an important source of revenue for xAI's competitors. Musk's employees' hesitation in using Grok indicates that the product still has a long way to go to establish credibility in the market, let alone become a industry leader. These challenges have prompted Musk to make what may be one of his boldest bets to date. On Tuesday, SpaceX, Musk's commercial space industry giant (which acquired xAI earlier this year), announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the rights to the AI programming startup Cursor later this year for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for collaboration projects. SpaceX stated that this high-cost collaboration aims to develop "the best programming and knowledge work AI in the world." xAI has developed an advanced - but often controversial - chat Siasun Robot&Automation, which is supported by data from Musk's social platform X. However, Grok has not yet proven itself in programming capabilities, and achieving this breakthrough quickly is crucial to dispel some investors' concerns about xAI dragging down SpaceX's valuation ahead of SpaceX's anticipated IPO in June. It is reported that SpaceX's acquisition of xAI before the IPO is the most controversial variable in the listing. As a newcomer in the big model race, xAI is in a period of high-intensity R&D investment, with monthly operating losses exceeding $300 million and projected net losses exceeding $4 billion in 2025, with no profitability in the short term. The market is generally concerned that after this acquisition, xAI's huge cash burn will be included in SpaceX's financial statements, diluting Starlink's profit potential and even leading to a situation where the listed company bears the cost of Musk's personal entrepreneurial projects, harming the interests of public shareholders, which is one of the biggest uncertainties in SpaceX's IPO. Meanwhile, sources familiar with the matter said that xAI has been promoting Grok to large Wall Street institutions and U.S. government agencies, claiming that it can be used for internal business and performance assessment reports generated by capturing company data. However, some sources expressed concerns that this promotion is influenced by concerns that the chat Siasun Robot&Automation is not capable enough in programming and financial modeling. In the financial sector, most Wall Street banks and asset management institutions either use self-developed AI models or tools from companies like Anthropic, making it more difficult to convince them to switch. After establishing a partnership with the General Services Administration, many government agencies are using various AI models including Grok. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that the agency is deploying Grok as one of its AI tools. Within Musk's corporate ecosystem, xAI's chat Siasun Robot&Automation is not limited to programming. For example, Starlink has integrated Grok into its platform's customer service system, and Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) is also using the technology in its electric vehicles. SpaceX also has a Grok version called Spok. However, progress in professional fields has been slow. Sources familiar with the matter said that some senior xAI managers have asked employees to accelerate the development of products similar to Claude, which can not only handle programming tasks, but also generate presentations and spreadsheets. Musk himself has admitted that xAI is "behind" in programming, and after a round of layoffs and staff departures (including almost the entire founding team), he has promised to restructure the company comprehensively to enhance its competitiveness. Musk tweeted on his social platform X in March: "xAI was not built correctly the first time, so we are rebuilding it from the ground up." To turn the situation around, xAI has started a large-scale recruitment of engineering and training team talents, including hiring two senior employees from Cursor last month. The company has also appointed Michael Nicolls, one of Starlink's senior executives, as president of xAI. However, some sources said that the ongoing layoffs and recruitment pace at xAI have left internal employees confused, and pointed out that the company's decisions regarding programming and other projects frequently change direction. Furthermore, while Cursor has become one of the fastest-growing startups in history and a core participant in the tech industry's "vibe coding" era, it also faces fierce competition. The company provides its own proprietary models, as well as integrates other models to avoid over-reliance on any single model vendor.