Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Wednesday, February 4th.

Today on Forbes, Elon Musk just became the first person ever worth $800 billion

after SpaceX acquired XAI.

Elon Musk just became the first person ever worth $800 billion or more after his rocket maker,

SpaceX, acquired his artificial intelligence and social media company, XAI.

Forbes estimates that the deal announced Monday evening, which values the combined company

at $1.25 trillion, boosted Musk's fortune by $84 billion, to a record $852 billion.

The merger is intended to give XAI a space-based advantage over its primary competitors,

including OpenAI, Google, and Meta. Musk said the acquisition would be the first step in bringing data centers,

which are needed to train and develop artificial intelligence, to space.

He said that electricity demand for AI on Earth, quote,

cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term,

without imposing hardship on communities and the

environment. Musk estimated that in the next two to three years, the most cost-effective way to build

processing power for AI will be in space, claiming the use of near-constant solar power would involve,

quote, little operating or maintenance costs.

Before the deal merging the two companies, Musk owned an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX worth $336 billion,

based on a tender offer launched in December that valued the privately held rocket maker at $800 billion.

He also owned an estimated 49% stake in XAI worth $122 billion, based on a private fundraising

round that valued that company at $250 billion in early January.

After the merger, which valued SpaceX at $1 billion in early January.

After the merger, which valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and XAI at $250 billion,

...