Musk denies report of SpaceX AI phone prototype

Elon Musk on Wednesday called a report about a SpaceX AI phone prototype “utterly false,” rejecting claims that the company had shown investors and other stakeholders a handset-like device before its blockbuster IPO in June. The reported prototype was described as slimmer than an iPhone and still early enough that there was no guarantee it would ever reach the market.

The Wall Street Journal report said the device was presented as a work in progress, not a finished product, and that it would run a proprietary operating system paired with AI technology from xAI. The same reporting said Qualcomm Snapdragon chips would power the prototype, a detail that immediately placed the claim in the center of Musk’s wider effort to connect his companies’ AI ambitions. SpaceX and Qualcomm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Musk pushed back on X and did not elaborate beyond the two-word denial. His response revived a question he has left dangling before: whether he would ever try to build a phone at all. He has brushed off the idea in the past, but has not completely ruled it out, leaving the door open to speculation whenever his companies move closer to consumer hardware.

That is why the report drew attention well beyond a single gadget rumor. SpaceX has already built a public identity around rockets and satellite internet, while xAI has become central to Musk’s AI strategy. A phone, even one that never leaves the prototype stage, would signal a possible expansion into the most valuable consumer hardware category on the market and a challenge to the Apple and Google-controlled platforms that shape how most people access apps, payments and AI services. For investors watching Musk’s companies as one linked ecosystem, the report was less about a handset than about whether SpaceX could become part of a broader AI hardware play.