Apr 17, 2026
In an unorthodox move, Elon Musk is making banks involved in SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) sign up for Grok, X's AI chatbot.
Banks are not the only ones the SpaceX CEO feels have to pay-to-play. His demand encompasses law firms, auditors and other advisors working on the IPO, according to the New York Times (1).
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Some banks have already agreed to spend tens of millions on Grok, with the chatbot already being integrated into their IT systems. The banks' names, however, were not disclosed in the paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this month.
SpaceX is slated to be the largest IPO in history, at an approximate $1.75 trillion (2). With fewer companies (3) making it to public offering, Wall Street is eager for this landmark deal.
As of February 2026, Grok became a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX.
Into the great wide open
So, why is Musk making Grok mandatory for banks? He wants to generate recurring enterprise contracts for xAI. This would shift revenue from individual users to big business.
Ahmad Shadid, co-founder of the confidential development environment, ORGN, shared his concerns with Moneywise.
"These banks stand to benefit immensely from one of the biggest IPOs in history, with potential underwriting fees estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, so Elon finds himself in a position of power and unusual leverage where he can easily demand something in return," he said. "What could benefit him more than direct revenue into a company that is not profitable?"
The Grok subscription injects revenue directly into xAI, which is now part of the consolidated SpaceX group. Income from subscriptions and enterprise contracts from big banks is a huge boost.
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"These banks are potentially thinking that the money they will get from underwriting fees and the IPO's prestige will probably dwarf the tens of millions they will pay annually for Grok subscriptions," Shadid added.
He added that large and long-term enterprise contracts are strong signals to investors, making fundraising and IPO easier.
Still, Shadid has concerns about privacy, security and compliance issues that mainstream AI poses for banks. He stressed how AI incidents increase bankruptcy risk (4) and reduce cash flow for banks.
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The dark side of the moon?
If you're not eager to invest in SpaceX, you may not have much of a choice. Due to its size, a publicly traded SpaceX would be absorbed into major index funds like Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (5), much like Musk's predecessor, Tesla.
If the IPO goes ahead, it will likely affect all those in the AI and space travel spheres. Even Musk wants to build solar-powered data centers (6) in orbit.
This has led OpenAI's Sam Altman to he wants to create a rival to SpaceX (7). Orbiting data centers and infrastructure are only the beginning.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
The New York Times (1); Reuters (2); Columbia Business School (3); ScienceDirect (4); MSN (5); The Verge (6); YouTube (7)
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Amanda Smith is an Australian freelance journalist and writer based in the New York City area who reports on culture/society, technology, and health.
