Elon Musk’s AI Startup Acquisition Fails to Land as Cognition Rebuffs SpaceX Buyout

SpaceX's attempt to acquire artificial intelligence coding startup Cognition AI Inc. stalled without a deal, according to people familiar with the matter. The approach would have been SpaceX's second major AI takeover in recent months.

The deal talks are no longer active, but the two companies continue discussing a compute partnership instead, letting Cognition use SpaceX's computing capacity, the people said.

Independence Over a Buyout

Cognition, founded in 2023, builds Devin, an AI agent designed to automate programming tasks for software engineers. The startup was valued at $26 billion in a May funding round. It has since opened early talks for fresh financing at a valuation of at least $40 billion, a trajectory that gives it less reason to sell.

Cognition Chief Executive Officer Scott Wu has been consistent on the matter, both publicly and in conversations with investors. He told Bloomberg in May that the company's funding round

"allows us to stay independent and continue as an independent business, which is really important for us."

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