By Echo Wang and Joey Roulette Feb 2 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk's AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, just combined his companies SpaceX and xAI, creating the most valuable privately-owned company in the world.

XAI and SpaceX branding will stay separate and collaboration will be limited, the company told staff.

Elon Musk is moving to combine his rocket company, SpaceX, with his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, according to people familiar with the matter, reports Bloomberg. The discussions come as the financial burden of building high-end AI systems continues to escalate,