Cognition CEO Denies SpaceX Acquisition Report

Cognition CEO Scott Wu has publicly denied a report that SpaceX attempted to acquire his AI coding startup, stating the company is not for sale and that no acquisition talks have taken place. The denial, issued on the social media platform X, came shortly after Bloomberg published a story on August 19, 2026, citing anonymous sources who said SpaceX had approached Cognition about a potential purchase.

The reported approach occurred just days after SpaceX finalized its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, another AI coding startup, on August 14. That deal, one of the largest in the AI sector, was an allstock transaction for Anysphere, the company behind the Cursor code editor. SpaceX had also acquired Elon Musk's own AI company, xAI, earlier in 2026. xAI subsequently went public in June, with its market capitalization peaking at nearly $2.3 trillion.

According to the Bloomberg report, the acquisition talks are no longer active, but the two companies are still discussing potential collaboration. One possibility under consideration is Cognition using SpaceX's computing capacity, which SpaceX is currently selling to other AI firms like Anthropic. Wu did not address this specific claim...