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Musk Says Grok Bot's Serving Costs Are 'Unsustainably High' Despite 800,000 Paid Users
Musk says the cost of serving SpaceX's Grok Bot is unsustainably high, despite 800,000 paid weekly users.
Key points
- Musk wrote on X that the cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue.
- Shotwell said Grok Bot reached 800,000 paid weekly users earlier that month, double the number in September.
- SpaceX's Super Intelligence division made $7.56 billion in Q3 revenue, while its AI capex was $16.4 billion.
Why it matters. Heavier agent use could raise SpaceX's costs without extra payment, and the company must now decide how much compute to keep for its own AI products versus rent to others.
On Sunday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on X that the cost of serving Grok Bot was "unsustainably high relative to revenue." SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said on the Oct. 20 earnings call that the bot had 800,000 paid weekly users, double September's number. SpaceX spent $16.4 billion on AI capex in Q3, 84% of its $19.6 billion total, according to an SEC filing.
Latest updates
Musk Says Grok Bot's Serving Costs Are 'Unsustainably High' Despite 800,000 Paid Users
SpaceX's AI chatbot Grok has reached 800,000 paid weekly users, according to the company's disclosures. On the Q3 earnings call on October 20, CEO Elon Musk told analysts that the product is seeing the fastest growth he has ever seen. On Sunday, Musk said the cost of serving Grok is unsustainably high compared with the revenue it generates, responding to an X user who asked him to reset a usage allowance that had run out four days early. The comments highlight the tension between rapid user growth and the expense of running AI models at scale. The report does not say what changes, if any, the company plans to make to usage limits or pricing.