AI in Orbit: SpaceX‑xAI, Paris Raid, AMD Earnings

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Here’s what’s new in AI and tech on Tuesday, February 3, 2026... A blockbuster merger as SpaceX folds xAI into its orbit at a $1.25 trillion valuation. A Paris raid of X tied to alleged AI‑driven deepfakes. AMD’s earnings day with big questions around agentic AI demand. Congress digging into how workplaces should adopt AI. And Cisco’s second annual AI Summit bringing some of the industry’s most powerful voices to one stage. Let’s get into it.

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First up — SpaceX merges with xAI at a $1.25 trillion valuation.

Elon Musk is folding two of his biggest ambitions into one. SpaceX is acquiring his AI venture, xAI, creating a combined company valued around $1.25 trillion — roughly $1 trillion for SpaceX and $250 billion for xAI. Multiple outlets report the deal and say it could position SpaceX for an IPO later this year, potentially early summer. Internal communications, cited by the Guardian and the Financial Times, describe a vertically integrated innovation engine spanning rockets, Starlink, AI, and the real‑time platform X. Early chatter even pegs a notional share price around $527, pending a listing.

Here’s what’s different — the infrastructure angle. The company explicitly links xAI’s compute needs to space. The strategy calls for orbital data centers and solar‑powered satellites to run AI in orbit... an audacious answer to the constraints of power and cooling on Earth. Reports note Musk has been telegraphing this vision for months. The merger gives xAI access to SpaceX hardware, a fast launch cadence, and Starlink’s global footprint.

And one more wrinkle. The combined entity would fold xAI’s Grok chatbot and the social platform X under SpaceX — as described by major outlets. In effect, Musk is stacking AI, distribution, and space infrastructure into one tower. We’ll watch for official SEC filings that clarify the final structure.

Next — Paris prosecutors raid X’s offices, with AI deepfakes at the center.

In Paris today, prosecutors and France’s cybercrime unit raided the French offices of X as part of a year‑long criminal probe. Authorities say the investigation — now broadened — covers alleged distribution of child sexual abuse material, Holocaust‑denial content, and sexually explicit AI‑generated deepfakes, with particular attention on Grok, the chatbot from xAI that’s integrated into X. Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino have been summoned for voluntary interviews in April. Europol is assisting, and officials frame the action as ensuring compliance with French law.

U.S. and European outlets report similar contours. A cybercrime investigation opened in 2025 has widened to explore algorithmic issues and the alleged role of Grok in propagating illegal or harmful content. The Washington Post adds that investigators are examining possible complicity — and that no charges have been filed at this stage. It’s a significant escalation of European scrutiny of AI‑powered content moderation, and the duties of platforms when their integrated tools can generate prohibited material.

This lands just as SpaceX absorbs xAI — raising the stakes for governance when AI generation, global distribution, and a social graph sit under one roof. In the near term, watch for whether X publishes transparency reports tied specifically to AI‑generated content, and whether European regulators connect this probe with ongoing Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act enforcement.

On to earnings — AMD is up next, with agentic AI and data center momentum in the spotlight.

Advanced Micro Devices reports Q4 results today. Wall Street will be laser‑focused on two things: data center contributions, and guidance tied to agentic AI — the class of systems that autonomously plan, iterate, and execute tasks. Consensus expects around $9.7 billion in revenue and $1.32 in adjusted EPS. Analysts are looking for a beat‑and‑raise driven by server CPUs and an accelerating GPU ramp. There’s optimism that AMD’s supply chain flexibility can capture incremental share from Intel. Investors are watching MI‑series GPUs and deployments aligned with hyperscale demand and major model partnerships.

Two guideposts to listen for on the call. First, clarity on the timing and mix between data center CPUs and accelerators — hard numbers on Instinct MI ramp trajectories, and how they translate to 2026 capacity. Second, color on the developer ecosystem — ROCm maturity, model performance, and how AMD’s client AI strategy ties into enterprise deployments. If AMD can quantify a durable, multi‑quarter demand curve for agentic inference and training, it strengthens the case that AI dollars are broadening beyond a single‑supplier market.

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On Capitol Hill — Congress takes up "Adopting AI at Work" this morning.

The House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions gavels in at 10:15 a.m. Eastern for a hearing titled "Building an AI‑Ready America: Adopting AI at Work." It’s the second in a series on artificial intelligence, and it will examine how employers can prepare for adoption — workforce training, safety, productivity, and governance. Expect probing questions about deployment guardrails and the role of federal agencies as AI tools embed into HR, scheduling, and customer support.

Why this matters now. The EU’s AI Act is phasing in obligations for high‑risk systems, and in the U.S., sector‑specific rules and procurement standards are moving fast. Today’s hearing signals that Congress wants concrete recommendations on standards, audits, and transparency in employment contexts — before agentic tools scale across the workplace. We’ll bring you any notable bipartisan proposals that emerge from testimony.

And finally — Cisco’s AI Summit kicks off.

Cisco’s second annual AI Summit starts today in San Francisco and online, hosted by CEO Chuck Robbins and President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel. The speaker list reads like the AI economy’s A‑list — NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and a16z’s Marc Andreessen are slated to share the stage. Cisco says the program will be livestreamed, ungated, and aimed at the builders of the AI economy — translation: expect a pragmatic focus on scaling AI securely, networking for AI factories, and enterprise governance, plus a flurry of partner announcements.

Heading in, watch three threads. First, how enterprises are re‑architecting networks for multi‑tenant AI workloads and agentic inference at scale — with next‑gen fabrics and storage paradigms tuned for long‑context AI. Second, security and data access — look for demos or frameworks for policy‑enforced retrieval and observability across AI pipelines. Third, the TCO math: cost per token, energy per token, and how new accelerators and photonics‑heavy networks shift the curve in 2026. Cisco is positioning this as an operating‑model summit — less theory, more runbooks.

Quick recap.

So, the big picture on Tuesday, February 3... Musk fuses SpaceX and xAI into a $1.25 trillion behemoth, explicitly aiming AI toward orbit. Paris prosecutors escalate their probe into X with a raid focused on AI‑generated deepfakes. AMD faces a pivotal earnings moment, with data center and agentic AI demand under the microscope. Congress digs into how to adopt AI at work — safely and productively. And Cisco puts the enterprise AI playbook front and center with an all‑star summit. We’ll keep an eye on the filings, the hearing room, and the livestreams as the day unfolds.

Thanks for listening and a quick disclaimer, this podcast was generated and curated by AI using my and my kids' cloned voices, if you want to know how I do it or want to do something similar, reach out to me at emad at ai news in 10 dot com that's ai news in one zero dot com. See you all tomorrow.