Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk said on Wednesday that SpaceX’s Grok Bot will send each task to whichever outside model does it best, including Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5, Midjourney and Suno.
- This makes it more likely that Grok becomes a major player, because users keep building on Grok Bot while the Grok models catch up.
- Paying outside models for each task is a real cost, and SpaceX’s operating margin was already -11.1% in 2025 while capex rose to $20.9 billion.
- Analysts expect SpaceX’s revenue to grow from $45.08 billion in 2026 to $421.73 billion by 2030, an 836% increase.
SpaceX (SPCX) just made Grok Bot a lot less dependent on…Grok.
On Wednesday, Elon Musk posted an “important note” about the AI assistant:
“Going forward, @SpaceX will use the best back end model for any given task, including Claude Opus 5.5, MidJourney, Suno and other leading APIs. > > Whatever is most likely to give you the best outcome.”
Put differently, a SpaceX product will now hand some of its work to Anthropic’s Claude. (I didn’t expect to write that sentence this year.)
Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, replied with two words: “brilliant move.”
I agree.
Why it’s brilliant
Rose went on to say it “keeps people building on Grok @bot while the @grok models get tuned to outperform the rest.”
That matters because the Grok models aren’t there yet. Even Musk has admitted that Grok isn’t at the frontier! (Although he thinks it will get there in time.)
Now people won’t have to wait. Grok Bot can give them Claude’s work today, and SpaceX keeps them in its app while Grok catches up. (And also, I expect, collects lots of data about how people are using Claude and how they can build new features into Grok. Good data to have.)
It gets better. The same day, Grok Bot gained the ability to “search, read, and monitor X.” Angel investor Jason Calacanis called it “a huge feature” that “should 10x the usage and value of Grok Bot.”
So Grok Bot now pairs the best model for each job with X’s own feed. That reach belongs to SpaceX no matter whose model ultimately ‘does the work.’
The bull case just got stronger
This matters because AI is a big part of why analysts think SpaceX’s revenue will climb from $45.08 billion this year to $421.73 billion by 2030…
That’s an increase of $376.65 billion and works out to 836% growth in four years. I don’t expect Wednesday’s news to move those estimates by itself, but it makes them easier to believe.
As I wrote last month, SpaceX is really three businesses:
- Starlink, which is proven and growing fast: $11.4 billion of revenue in 2025, about 61% of SpaceX’s $18.7 billion total. Subscribers more than doubled that year, from 4.4 million to 8.9 million.
- AI, which has a predictable side (renting out compute in its Colossus 1 data center to Anthropic and Alphabet (GOOG)) and a speculative side (Grok).
- Space beyond Starlink, which SpaceX’s S-1 puts at a $370 billion opportunity.
Wednesday’s move takes some of the guesswork out of that speculative side. Grok Bot can win users now, which gives the Grok models a better shot at becoming a major player once they catch up.
Of course, it’ll cost more too
Every task Grok Bot sends to Claude means a payment to Anthropic, which will squeeze margins and send revenue to rivals.
And SpaceX doesn’t have much margin to spare right now. Its operating margin went from 5.3% in 2024 to -11.1% in 2025…
…even though Starlink alone made $4.4 billion of operating income in 2025.
Spending keeps rising, too. Capital expenditures grew 4.7x in two years, from $4.42 billion in 2023 to $20.9 billion in 2025:
Here’s the thing: SpaceX only pays Anthropic when someone uses Grok Bot, and usage is exactly what Grok Bot needs right now. The $20.9 billion is the bigger bet, and it pays for compute and reach that SpaceX owns no matter which model wins. (And remember – SpaceX rents compute to both Anthropic and Google from Colossus 1, so they’re getting some of it back gardless.)
Investor Anthony Pompliano, whose team at CFO Silvia built its own model router, thinks the rest of the industry will follow: “I anticipate most applied AI products will eventually capitulate and open up to various models.”
Bottom line: The 836% revenue growth analysts expect depends partly on Grok becoming a major player, and this move makes that much more likely in my view. Grok Bot can now give users the best answer available today, with X built in, while the Grok models catch up.
Of course, Grok still has to close the gap – but betting against Elon is generally a bad move, so I’m confident it will be a top three player in the next 1-2 years. Until then, I’ll be watching SpaceX’s operating margin to see what routing really costs.
So what is SpaceX stock actually worth?
TIKR lets you forecast the future price of any stock in less than a minute. Just enter a few assumptions into TIKR’s valuation model and see what SpaceX could be worth. Start from Wall Street consensus estimates, or adjust the inputs to reflect your own view of the business. It’s free to use.
Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
