India, March 29 -- The world's richest man and close aide of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, announced on Friday that his AI company, xAI, has acquired social media platform X, once known as Twitter, in an all-stock deal valued at $45 billion, including $12 billion in debt, placing xAI's valuation at $80 billion and X's at $33 billion.

With this move, Musk aims to integrate artificial intelligence and social media, merging xAI's cutting-edge technology with X's vast user base of over 600 million.

Musk said in a post on X that xAI and X's futures are "intertwined" and that the companies will combine data, models, computing power, distribution, and talent. He added that the merged entity would be valued at $80 billion.

"The combined company wil...