Musk and Zuckerberg claw back into AI race with new model momentum
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have muscled their way back into AI's elite ranks, defying early obituaries to close the gap on a new generation of Silicon Valley startups. Why it matters: Recent gains by tech giants SpaceX and Meta — long stuck in AI's second tier — are putting new pressure on a hierarchy dominated by OpenAI and Anthropic. State of play: Both companies released models this week…
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have made a comeback in the artificial intelligence (AI) field, closing the gap with new-generation startups in Silicon Valley. This development puts pressure on the hierarchy currently dominated by OpenAI and Anthropic. Both companies recently launched models that combine high performance with low prices, catching tech giants off guard.
SpaceX's Grok 4.6 matched OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol Max on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, while Meta's Muse Glimmer offers competitive performance at a lower cost, allowing it to run on a laptop. Zuckerberg emphasized this strategy as "superintelligence for everyone" in a recent manifesto, signaling Meta's renewed open-AI ambitions.
Musk and Zuckerberg invested heavily in AI, with Zuckerberg allocating $14.3 billion to Scale AI and hiring Alexandr Wang as Meta's AI leader, while Musk integrated xAI into SpaceX and acquired Cursor for $60 billion. The AI race is increasingly influenced by affordability, urging Musk and Zuckerberg to determine if their advancements can benefit their core businesses.
Despite these advancements, frontier labs like OpenAI and Anthropic still lead the market, with more capable models on the horizon. The competition could gain traction if turbulence at Google, which once dominated AI, hampers its progress.
Written by urgent.news from Axios's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
