SpaceX reportedly chased AI coding startup Cognition

Elon Musk’s SpaceX attempted to acquire AI coding startup Cognition LLC as part of its aggressive push into the AI market, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Cognition CEO Scott Wu immediately refuted the report on X, stating the company is not for sale and that no acquisition talks had occurred. This comes just days after SpaceX finalized its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, another AI coding startup, and months after SpaceX acquired xAI earlier this year in a blockbuster IPO that briefly pushed its market cap to nearly $2.3 trillion.

The reported pursuit of Cognition highlights SpaceX’s ambition to leverage AI-assisted coding to monetize the technology, a strategy already validated by Anthropic’s rapid growth with Claude Code. Cognition, valued at $25 billion after a $1 billion funding round in May, remains one of the largest independent AI coding startups. The company has faced scrutiny over its intense work culture, including reports of employees working over 80-hour weeks and strict in-office requirements, echoing Musk’s famously grueling work ethic. While SpaceX and Cognition did not comment on the Bloomberg report, the denial leaves open the possibility of future partnerships, such as Cognition leveraging SpaceX’s expanding compute capacity.