(This Jan 30 story has been repeated with no changes to the text) By Jonathan Stempel Jan 30 (Reuters) - A federal judge signaled on Friday she may dismiss a lawsuit by Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI accusing Sam Altman's rival OpenAI of stealing trade secrets to gain an unfair advantage in developing AI technology.

Elon Musk's mega-deal combining SpaceX and xAI is the latest sign that the billionaire is consolidating his business empire as he goes all in on AI.

Elon Musk tightens his grip over technologies that shape national security, social media, and artificial intelligence.

The deal brings xAI and Elon Musk’s social media platform X under the SpaceX banner.

Musk's merger of SpaceX and xAI turns a future IPO into a bet on space-based data centers and a $1.25 trillion vision for AI compute beyond the planet.

Musk is combining rocket maker SpaceX with his AI startup, the largest tie-up in his expansive business portfolio.

Elon Musk announced that SpaceX would merge with his artificial intelligence company, xAI, creating the world’s most valuable private company. The new combined company is valued at around $1.25 trillion,

Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX Corp. today said it has acquired his artificial intelligence startup xAI Corp. ahead of what will likely be one of the largest initial public offerings in history later this year.

SpaceX announced today that it has acquired xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, in a deal that creates a combined entity reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion ahead of a planned IPO. The acquisition notably does not include Tesla,

SpaceX and OpenAI and their leaders, Elon Musk and Sam Altman, are among tech's biggest figures. Both could IPO in 2026.