Cognition Denies SpaceX Acquisition Attempt Amid AI Race

Amid the fierce competition to lead the artificial intelligence sector, Elon Musk-owned SpaceX has once again made headlines, following a report indicating its bid to acquire Cognition, a startup specializing in AI-assisted coding. However, the account was quickly met with an explicit denial from the target company, opening the door to questions about SpaceX's growing ambitions in this field.

A Swift Denial from Cognition's CEO

Scott Wu, CEO of Cognition, wasted no time responding to the report published by Bloomberg citing knowledgeable sources. He wrote on the X platform that the news was inaccurate, affirming that his company is "not for sale" and that no talks had taken place between the two parties regarding an acquisition deal. This categorical denial raises question marks about the actual nature of the relationship between the two companies and the seriousness of any potential discussions.

A Series of AI Moves by SpaceX

This report comes just days after SpaceX completed its acquisition of the startup "Cursor," which also specializes in AI coding tools, in a deal valued at around 60 billion dollars. The company had also earlier this year acquired Musk-owned "xAI," before floating its shares in an IPO in June as one of the largest offerings, sending its market value soaring to nearly 2.3 trillion dollars at its peak.

Despite these ambitions, SpaceX's AI activity remains relatively in its early stages, lagging behind competitors such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. The company has also faced challenges related to its "Grok" chatbot, which has sparked wide controversy on more than one occasion, complicating its efforts to win the trust of large corporate clients.

Smart Coding: A Clear Path to Profit

AI-powered coding tools have emerged as one of the clearest avenues for generating financial returns from this technology. The rapid growth of Anthropic, driven largely by its "Claude Code" tool, is proof of this. In this context, the addition of "Cursor" was part of SpaceX's strategy, as the two companies collaborated on launching a new model called "Grok 4.6" that achieved advanced results in coding tests and complex multi-step tasks.

Cognition, for its part, owns a software agent known as "Devin," along with a customer base of major companies including Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and Goldman Sachs. Acquiring it would have given SpaceX an additional boost in this sector and greater capacity to compete with others in attracting enterprise clients.

Prospects for Collaboration Instead of Acquisition

The Bloomberg report indicated that acquisition talks were no longer ongoing, but the two companies were still exploring the possibility of collaboration, perhaps through Cognition using the computing capabilities that SpaceX sells to other companies such as Anthropic. Wu did not specifically address this point in his denial.

Cognition is among the most prominent independent startups in the field of AI coding that has not yet been acquired by any major model-development company. In late May, it raised 1 billion dollars in funding at a valuation of 25 billion dollars, and is currently in preliminary talks for a new funding round that could raise its valuation to 40 billion dollars.

Background on Cognition and Its Intense Work Culture

Cognition previously made headlines when it acquired the remaining assets of its rival "Windsurf" after Google DeepMind recruited its CEO and top researchers in a deal worth 2.4 billion dollars. Following the merger, Cognition proceeded to lay off employees and impose strict operational expectations that included workweeks exceeding 80 hours and six-day-a-week attendance — an intense work culture that seems familiar for Musk's companies known for their long working hours.

Both SpaceX and Cognition did not respond to requests for comment on these developments, leaving the fate of any potential partnership between the two parties dependent on the future.

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