Cognition CEO Scott Wu has rejected a Bloomberg report claiming SpaceX approached the AI coding startup about an acquisition, saying the company has no plans to sell.
“This is not true,” Wu wrote on X, adding that “Cognition is not for sale and we haven’t been talking.” He also expressed “huge respect for the SpaceX team” while dismissing the reported takeover discussions.
The denial came shortly after reports emerged about SpaceX’s growing push into AI coding. The company recently completed its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, another major AI coding startup. The deal, which was announced in June, closed last week.
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The reported interest in Cognition comes as SpaceX continues to expand its ambitions in artificial intelligence. The company acquired Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI earlier this year and has increasingly positioned AI as a major part of its long-term business strategy.
SpaceX also made a blockbuster public debut in June, with its market value climbing to nearly $2.3 trillion at its peak. Musk has told employees that he expects AI to account for 99% of the company’s value in roughly four or five years, although reaching that target would require SpaceX to significantly expand its AI revenue.
AI-powered coding has emerged as one of the most promising commercial applications of the technology. Anthropic’s rapid growth with Claude Code has highlighted the demand for AI tools that can handle increasingly complex software development tasks.
SpaceX’s acquisition of Cursor appears to be part of that strategy. Cursor and SpaceX had already been working together before the acquisition was completed. Earlier this month, the two companies jointly released Grok 4.6, a model designed to perform strongly on coding and complex multi-step agentic tasks.
Cognition could have given SpaceX another major player in the sector. Its flagship coding agent, Devin, is used by enterprise customers including Mercedes-Benz, Citi and Goldman Sachs. Adding the company would have strengthened SpaceX’s position in the enterprise AI market and expanded its coding capabilities.
Bloomberg reported that the acquisition discussions are no longer active, although the two companies may still explore a commercial partnership. One possibility is Cognition using SpaceX’s computing infrastructure. SpaceX has been making some of its computing capacity available to other AI companies, including Anthropic.
Wu’s public statement did not address that part of the report.
Cognition remains one of the biggest independent AI coding startups in the market. The company raised $1 billion in late May at a $25 billion post-money valuation. Bloomberg has also reported that Cognition is exploring another funding round that could value the company at around $40 billion.
The startup has rapidly expanded its footprint in the AI coding space. Last year, Cognition acquired the remaining assets of Windsurf after Google DeepMind hired the startup’s CEO and senior research talent in a $2.4 billion deal involving talent and licensing rights.
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The Windsurf acquisition also brought significant changes inside Cognition. The company laid off 30 employees and offered buyouts to roughly 200 remaining Windsurf workers. Employees who stayed were reportedly expected to work under an unusually demanding schedule, including more than 80 hours a week and six days in the office.
That intense work culture has drawn comparisons with Musk’s own approach to running companies. Musk has previously said he works as much as 120 hours a week and has described sleeping at offices and factories during particularly demanding periods.
For now, however, Cognition appears determined to remain independent. Wu’s quick rejection of the SpaceX report makes that position clear, even as interest in AI coding companies continues to grow among some of the biggest technology players in the world.