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Musk says SpaceXAI will be renamed SpaceXSI, following Trump's order renaming AI

He confirmed it in a reply on X before dawn, and Trump reposted him by lunchtime.

By Think Facility · October 4, 2026 · xAI AI policy

Elon Musk said on X on October 4, 2026 that SpaceXAI will be renamed SpaceXSI. He confirmed it at 5:07 am Eastern, in a reply posted 27 minutes after he'd said he was done with the term AI (both times are read off the posts).

Nine hours later, President Trump shared a screenshot of that first post on Truth Social. He didn't add a word. The rename follows Trump's September 29 order telling federal agencies to say Super Intelligence in place of artificial intelligence.

  1. Musk drops AI
  2. Freeze floats .si
  3. Musk confirms rename
  4. Musk restates it

Oct 4, Eastern time, read off each post on X.

What Musk posted

He started at 4:40 am.

Elon Musk@elonmusk · xAI

No more AI SI It’s better

View the post on X
A yellow plane wing over a flat roof of solar panels laid out in a giant X, beside a hangar marked Tesla
Solar panels laid out in an X on the roof of SpaceX's headquarters, beside a Tesla design center. Photo: Steve Jurvetson from Los Altos, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Then came the reply that made it a company decision. Musk wrote it to the account X Freeze (the reply is six words long), and that account posted later in the day that "Elon Musk just confirmed the name change" from SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI.

Elon Musk@elonmusk · xAI

Yes, we will make that change

View the post on X

Three minutes on, he added a one-line version of his own, "SpaceX is a super intelligence company". He didn't give a date for the switch. None of his posts says what happens to the Grok name, either.

I'd call it a commitment with nothing attached to it yet, made on a Sunday morning in replies on his personal account, @elonmusk, rather than in anything SpaceX itself put out. Still, it's in writing, and I suspect the paperwork will take a bit longer than the reply did.

Where the name comes from

Trump's Executive Order 14434 only binds the executive branch. Nothing in it asks a company to do anything. So the change is Musk's own call, and he made it in under half an hour.

executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch

From Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence – The White House

And the order doesn't change what the words mean in law. Its SI covers exactly what the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence covers (the order cites section 9401(3) of title 15), until the White House science adviser proposes a new one.

X Freeze had already floated a bigger step at 4:58 am, nine minutes before Musk's answer.

X Freeze@XFreeze

All SI companies with .ai might need to change to .si now

View the post on X

It has a market already. We reported on October 2 that .si web addresses sold 13 times faster in September after Trump first pushed the new name.

Trump's reply

At 1:38 pm Eastern, Trump posted a screenshot of Musk's 4:40 am post on Truth Social (the archive copy shows the image and no caption). As of 4 pm Eastern, that screenshot is the only thing he's posted about the rename.

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