Elon Musk’s xAI Hires Crypto Expert as SpaceX Merger Nears

Elon Musk is always chasing big things. Reusable rockets, The Boring Company, social media, and SpaceX, and yet he remains a major part of each. He is also a centi-billionaire. A level deeper, he might even hold some DOGE. Who knows? He was the head of DOGE before Trump slammed the brakes on “efficiency.”

As the US government is locked in a partial shutdown, xAI, the AI startup so dear to Musk, is merging with SpaceX, placing their combined valuation at over $1.25T. This means SpaceX and xAI alone are worth roughly the same as the total market cap of Bitcoin. Even combining the value of all meme coins, including those breakout tokens from Solana, none come close.

From what we know, following the merger, xAI opened a role for a crypto quantitative expert. For a company that also holds Bitcoin, this is big news, not just for short-term prices, but for the role crypto could play in the space race. It also signals that some of the top cryptos are being woven into the core infrastructure of the new firm.

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What Is xAI Really Hiring For?

Markets did not react with a single price spike, but the message landed clearly: Big tech builders want crypto knowledge baked directly into AI models. This shows crypto is no longer a side experiment; crypto data is now on the same strategic level as rockets and satellites.

It came as a surprise at first. However, it fits a wider trend where AI systems learn directly from real trading data. From what is public, xAI wants someone to train its AI on how crypto markets work in real time. That includes derivatives trading and on-chain analytics, which involves reading public blockchain data like a bank statement anyone can see.

Very interesting: @xai is hiring a crypto expert with deep knowledge of blockchain, DeFi, and quantitative trading to train AI models.

The future isn’t crypto vs AI. It is crypto + AI.

X is already the #1 place where CT hangs out. @elonmusk wants to make xAI/@grok the #1… pic.twitter.com/k6ilA7CvEr

— Sumit Gupta (CoinDCX) (@smtgpt) February 3, 2026

The role focuses on strategies like cross-exchange arbitrage. That is buying Bitcoin cheaper on one exchange and selling it higher on another. Simple idea. Hard to execute without fast data and smart systems. xAI also wants expertise in DeFi.

If you want background, this trend connects with the rise of AI crypto agents already entering live blockchain networks.

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Is Crypto Becoming Interstellar?

When Musk announced the merger, the goal was to build space-based data centers. Terrestrial AI centers are hitting a wall with energy consumption and cooling. By using Starlink’s infrastructure, SpaceX-xAI plans to access near-constant solar energy without Earth’s environmental constraints. This will allow them to scale easily by launching massive clusters of AI satellites to provide global, low-latency intelligence.

By bringing in a crypto quantitative expert, they appear to be focusing more on infrastructure, not trading per se. As mentioned earlier, the role involves training AI models on on-chain analytics and DeFi protocols. This means the AI isn’t just learning language. There will be work on learning the mechanics of automated global finance.

The new merger between xAi and SpaceX means the following are all under one company.

– SpaceX rockets, with 90% market share of launching mass into orbit.
– Starlink, the only global telecommunications system.
– Starshield, another version of Starlink for the US military which… pic.twitter.com/w9SkCqazJT

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) February 3, 2026

However, when looking at this from a top-down view, a space-based data network needs a currency that doesn’t depend on terrestrial banks. Cryptos like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and even meme coins provide a borderless financial protocol that fits a company operating in orbit.

Effectively, Musk is tying xAI, SpaceX, and X together. This creates a loop where X provides real-time human data, Grok (via xAI) crunches that data, and SpaceX acts as the host, providing the physical infrastructure. Since Grok enables automation, crypto is well-suited to be the transaction layer for this extraterrestrial ecosystem.

This move makes sense. When Grok accesses X and a crypto quant expert links the AI to on-chain data, the system will efficiently run a sovereign, automated engine. Since we are talking about space, where JPMorgan doesn’t have a physical location, automation is empowering. It will allow for the efficient management of resources and payments across the SpaceX-provided internet.

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Elon Musk’s xAI Hires Crypto Expert as SpaceX Merger Nears