SpaceX has cut most of the team behind Grok Imagine, its tool that makes AI videos and images. Yet its AI business is booming.
About 60 people lost their jobs in the past week, The Information reported. Only a handful remain. SpaceX has not commented.
The Money Comes From Renting Computers to Rivals
AI made $7.6 billion of SpaceX’s $14.6 billion in revenue last quarter, up 830% in a year. The Motley Fool credits deals renting computing power to AI developers such as Anthropic and Alphabet, plus rising Grok use.
In the second quarter, AI solutions and infrastructure made $2.19 billion of the AI unit’s $2.56 billion. Advertising made $367 million. SpaceX has signed $14.1 billion in cloud deals.
In August, Musk said he expects “maybe 10%” of the company’s computing power to go to training Grok.
Musk Admits Claude Beats Grok
Anthropic, one of those paying customers, makes Claude. This week, Musk said his Grok 4.8 is “not as good” as Claude Opus 5.5. “Opus 5.5 is a masterpiece,” he added, BeInCrypto reported.
In August, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company was “rapidly expanding our compute capacity to meet our own needs as Grok expands.” Three months later, Grok’s video team is mostly gone.
Grok Trails in Apps and Video
Grok ranked fifth of seven major AI assistants by web visits in May, a Momentic Marketing report found. In July video rankings, where viewers voted blind, Chinese companies took the top six spots, led by ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0, Capital and Compute found.
Investors Barely Blinked
SpaceX stock (SPCX) stock fell 0.56% to $139.15 in early trading on Friday after the report. Shares jumped toward $142 at the opening bell, then reversed below Thursday’s close of $139.94.
