Banks working on the SpaceX IPO reportedly have to subscribe to Grok
Cutthroat capitalism certainly brings out the best in humanity. Take, for example, Elon Musk. He would have set a condition for banks, law firms, auditors and advisors wishing to work on SpaceX’s IPO. They are required to subscribe to the bastion of non-consensual deepfakes and occasional Hitler praise known as Grok.
Surely the best and brightest banks our country has to offer would refuse such a pay-to-play request, right? Well no. The New York Times reports that some of them agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars on Grok. These financial institutions would already integrate the chatbot into their IT systems.
THE Times’ sources say it was not an unconditional request. Musk instead insisted that they subscribe to Grok as part of the privilege of working on the SpaceX IPO. He would also have asked banks to advertise on X, but he was less firm on this subject. See? He is a flexible and easy-going guy at heart.
Five banks are expected to work on the IPO: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. At the same time, the law firms Gibson Dunn and Davis Polk would provide advice. We can probably assume that all of them are currently installing Grok on their internal systems. Good times.
SpaceX’s IPO, filed confidentially earlier this week, is expected to raise more than $50 billion and value the company at more than $1 trillion. With Banks expected to reap more than $500 million from their work on the deal, paying for Grok, despite his myriad problems, perhaps seemed like a small price to pay. See? Just great people doing honest things in the good old United States of America.
