Elon Musk rebrands SpaceXAI as SpaceXSI following Donald Trump executive order

Elon Musk has confirmed that SpaceXAI is changing its name to SpaceXSI, aligning his aerospace firm's intelligence division with President Donald Trump’s new directive to drop the term "artificial intelligence".

The decision, announced on Sunday, follows an executive order signed by Trump last week titled "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence". The order mandates that US federal agencies, public communications, government websites, and official reports replace the acronym AI with "SI" (Super Intelligence), arguing that the new term better reflects the actual power of modern technology.

Musk confirmed the corporate name change on his social media platform, X, in response to an inquiry from another user. "Yes, we will make that change," Musk wrote, later adding: "No more AI. SI, it’s better."

While the White House directive does not legally compel private enterprises to rename their products, Musk’s swift compliance underscores his close ties to the current administration. Musk served as a special adviser to Trump in 2025, and his technology has already been integrated into the state apparatus, with his Grok chatbot contracted to power specific government projects.

The corporate evolution of SpaceXSI

The sudden pivot to SpaceXSI marks the second major structural identity change for the division in just a few months. SpaceXAI was only created in July 2026, when SpaceX absorbed xAI in a massive $1.25 trillion deal that consolidated Musk’s technology and aerospace empires. Prior to that merger, xAI had operated as an independent startup, which itself acquired X Corp—the parent company of the platform formerly known as Twitter—in March 2025.

Though the rebranding matches Trump's political vocabulary, the concept of "super intelligence" is something Musk has championed for over a decade. In 2014, he praised and provided funding to support Nick Bostrom’s book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. Musk has frequently repeated the book's central warning, arguing that an uncontrollable super-intelligent system poses a more profound existential risk to humanity than nuclear weapons.

The announcement also follows a high-level meeting at the White House on 29 September 2026, where Trump hosted Musk and other prominent technology leaders to discuss national strategy. While the executive order immediately changes how executive branch agencies speak and write about the technology, congressional statutory references will remain as "AI" until lawmakers pass conforming amendments to federal law.