Musk’s xAI acquires AI video startup Hotshot
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Elon Musk’s AI company xAI has acquired Hotshot, a generative AI video startup.
The context: Hotshot, founded in 2017, allows users to create AI-generated videos that look realistic. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Backed by investors including Lachy Groom, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and SV Angel, Hotshot initially developed AI-powered photo tools before pivoting to text-to-video AI models.
CEO Aakash Sastry announced the deal on X, saying the team is excited to scale its work on xAI’s computing cluster, Colossus.
The acquisition could allow xAI to add AI video capabilities to its Grok chatbot, which is embedded in X (formerly Twitter). Musk previously said xAI is working on video-generation models, hinting in January that a “Grok Video” model could launch in a few months.
Hotshot has begun shutting down, with existing users able to download videos until 30 March, it said on its website.
What they said: “Over the past 2 years we've built 3 video foundation models as a small team - Hotshot-XL, Hotshot Act One, and Hotshot,” Sastry said.
“Training these models has given us a look into how global education, entertainment, communication, and productivity are about to change in the coming years. We're excited to continue scaling these efforts on the largest cluster in the world, Colossus, as a part of xAI!”
The sources: Aakash Sastry post , Hotshot, TechCrunch
