By Echo Wang and Joey Roulette Feb 2 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk's AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, just combined his companies SpaceX and xAI, creating the most valuable privately-owned company in the world.

SpaceX is pausing Falcon 9 launches after an issue with the rocket’s upper stage encountered at the end of a launch Feb. 2.

The list of broken promises Musk has made about fantastical technological achievements leaves a lot of room for doubt.

XAI and SpaceX branding will stay separate and collaboration will be limited, the company told staff.

SpaceX says it wants to deploy an astronomical number of data centres in orbit to supply power for artificial intelligence, but the proposal might not be entirely serious

SpaceX has formally acquired another one of Elon Musk’s companies, xAi, the space company announced on Monday afternoon.

The company is planning ways to meet the energy and computing needs of AI, even as the company mulls a merger with xAI.