Cognition chief executive Scott Wu publicly denied a Bloomberg report that SpaceX approached his company about an acquisition, saying the story is not true, Cognition is not for sale, and the two companies have not been talking.
Bloomberg reported on August 19, citing people familiar with the matter, that SpaceX approached Cognition AI about a potential acquisition and that Cognition did not engage. Those people said deal talks are not currently active, but that the companies continue to discuss working together, including a possible arrangement for Cognition to use SpaceX's computing capacity. Bloomberg described the reported approach as what would have been SpaceX's second large takeover in recent months. The Next Web reported that SpaceX completed a $60 billion purchase of Cursor, another AI coding startup, on August 14.
Wu rejected the account the same day on X. "This is not true," he wrote, according to The Verge and TechCrunch. "Huge respect for the SpaceX team but Cognition is not for sale and we haven't been talking."
Bloomberg described an approach that was not taken up. Wu said the companies have not been talking. TechCrunch reported that his denial did not address the claimed discussions about computing capacity.
SpaceX and Cognition did not respond to requests for comment from Bloomberg and TechCrunch.
Cognition, founded in 2023, builds the AI coding agent Devin. The company raised about $1 billion in May. Wu told Bloomberg that month that the financing "allows us to stay independent and continue as an independent business, which is really important for us."