SAN FRANCISCO, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Elon Musk said on Friday that his startup xAI has merged with his social media platform X in an all-stock transaction.

"xAI has acquired X in an all-stock transaction," Musk said, adding that the combination values xAI at 80 billion U.S. dollars and X at 33 billion dollars (45 billion dollars less 12 billion debt).

"xAI and X's futures are intertwined," Musk wrote in a post on X. "Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent."

He added that the merger of the two companies would "unlock immense potential by blending xAI's advanced AI capability and expertise with X's massive reach."

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, wrote in a post after Friday's announcement, "The future could not be brighter."

Musk acquired Twitter in a deal valued at around 44 billion dollars in late 2022, renaming it X.

He launched xAI in 2023 with a goal to "understand the true nature of the universe." The company has been developing large language models and AI software products. xAI's Grok chatbot has been available to users of the social media platform X.

Investors valued xAI at around 50 billion dollars in a financing round last year. Bloomberg reported last month that xAI was in talks to raise funds at a 75 billion dollar valuation. ■