Elon Musk’s xAI is “engaged in discussions” about partnerships with prediction markets, but has not yet agreed to an official partnership, representatives of xAI said Wednesday — one day after Kalshi appeared to prematurely announce a deal with the company behind the Grok chatbot.
The announcement from xAI comes just a day after Kalshi founder Tarek Mansour boasted of — and was then forced to retract the announcement of — a partnership with xAI.
In a post made Tuesday morning on the X social media app, Mansour wrote: “No one has fought for truth harder than Elon Musk. He has inspired me at every step.
“I could not be more excited to announce Kalshi’s upcoming partnership with xAI to further take prediction markets mainstream. Together, we’ll shape the future of news and information.”
The post was accompanied by a screenshot of a Bloomberg news story reporting details of the partnership.
According to that story, xAI was set to “provide tailored information to offer guidance for bets” made by Kalshi users.
But hours later, Mansour deleted the post and Bloomberg retracted the story, reporting that Kalshi had rescinded its original statement about the deal.
“Bloomberg retracted a story published earlier Tuesday saying that Kalshi would partner with artificial-intelligence firm xAI after Kalshi rescinded its statement announcing the product integration deal,” Bloomberg said in a follow-up story dedicated to the retraction. “The company said details of the release, which stated that the effort would provide users with tailored information, had not been mutually confirmed between the two firms.”
Stay tuned!
On Wednesday, xAI acknowledged the events in an X post of its own.
“Recent speculation about xAI’s involvement in the prediction market space has been circulating,” the post read. “While we’re enthusiastic about the potential of this industry and engaged in various discussions, no formal partnerships have been confirmed to date.”
It added, “Stay tuned!” suggesting a partnership with one or more prediction markets could be on the way soon.
If it does eventually occur, a partnership with Musk’s AI business would be the latest link between Kalshi and figures associated with the Trump administration, as the prediction market aims to ensure the sports event contracts on which it has become increasingly reliant are not ruled to be an illegal form of gambling.
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., acts as a strategic advisor to Kalshi, while Brian Quintenz — the president’s pick to run the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets and can determine if sports event contracts are illegal — sits on Kalshi’s board. Musk was the largest donor to the Trump campaign and is the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
