Nonilex18h ago

#ElonMusk has made a particularly bold demand of his #WallStreet advisers ahead of the #IPO of #SpaceX.

#Musk is requiring banks, law firms, auditors & other advisers working on the IPO to buy subscriptions to #Grok, his #AI #chatbot, which is part of SpaceX, acc/to 4 people with knowledge….

Some of the banks have agreed to spend tens of millions on the chatbot, & they have already started integrating Grok into their #IT systems….

#tech #business #law #SEC #antitrust
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/business/spacex-ipo-grok-elon-musk.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Big Banks Seeking a Piece of SpaceX’s I.P.O. Must Subscribe to Elon Musk’s Grok

Mr. Musk is requiring Wall Street firms to purchase subscriptions to his A.I. chatbot if they want to advise on one of the largest initial public offerings in history.

The New York Times
Show threadPaul_IPv618h ago

@Nonilex

think we should be tracking which banks. i sure don't want my money at any place doing grok for IT...

[edit to add listing of such banks]

https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/116342437077597948

Nonilex (@[email protected])

For now, 5 #banks are expected to work on the offering — #BankOfAmerica, #Citigroup, #GoldmanSachs, #JPMorganChase & #MorganStanley. The #LawFirms #GibsonDunn & #DavisPolk are also advising on the deal. Musk’s agreement with banks is a big score for #SpaceX, which merged with #xAI in February & whose #Grok is a distant 4th in the #AI race behind #OpenAI’s #ChatGPT, #Claude & #Google’s #Gemini. #Musk #tech #business #law #SEC #antitrust

Mastodon
Show threadBen Evans17h ago

@paul_ipv6 @Nonilex There is zero chance that any of the banks will actually integrate or use Grok for anything real. This is just a straight-up bribe.

On the off-chance that Manbaby insists on seeing some usage metrics, a small team within the bank will quietly be instructed to write a fake load generator that exercises the Grok API and does nothing with the results.

Show threadPaul_IPv617h ago

@kittylyst @Nonilex

i'm less concerned with the security aspects than the low business morals and sliminess of it.

not shockingly, 4 of the 5 are already companies i've determined won't get my business ever due to their lack of ethics and customer care concern.

Show threadBen Evans17h ago
@paul_ipv6 @Nonilex Unfortunately, every single bank with an investment banking division is engaged in this type of currying favour with prospects.
Show threadPaul_IPv616h ago

@kittylyst @Nonilex

which is why i use a specific broker for investments and credit union for banking...

at whatever point we finally get past a majority GOP congress and WH, there's a slew of banking and investment regs to get back or add to the mix.

Show threadBen Evans

@paul_ipv6 @Nonilex Sorry to sound like Mr Doom, but it's not that simple. Pro-crypto PACs are also writing cheques for assorted Democrats that can be persuaded.

Simply retaking Congress won't necessarily undo all of the damage that's been done in terms of normalizing insider trading and crypto-enhanced fraud.

12:38amWeb
Show threadPaul_IPv613h ago

@kittylyst @Nonilex

gee, no kidding?

retaking congress/WH is just the start of a huge number of things to fix, including how elections and campaign finance work, committee selection works, conventions like filibustering.

but it's a start.