Report suggests SpaceX is testing a handheld AI device, Musk says it's 'utterly false'

Published 1 July 2026 · tech

SpaceX, the newly-public satellite internet company that also dabbles in rockets and CSAM-generating chatbots, might be building its own AI hardware. The Wall Street Journal

SpaceX, the newly-public satellite internet company that also dabbles in rockets and CSAM-generating chatbots, might be building its own AI hardware. The Wall Street Journal reports that ahead of its initial public offering, SpaceX demoed a handheld AI device to investors that could put the company in the same rarified air as Rabbit, or some day, OpenAI. Update, July 1 2026, 4:20PM ET: Well, that was fast. In the minutes since our article published, Elon Musk has replied to a post on X to say that the WSJ report is "utterly false." The rest of this story below covers what the original article reported.

The device is slimmer than an iPhone, according to WSJ, and is powered by one of Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips. SpaceX's gadget reportedly runs on its own proprietary operating system and is integrated with services from xAI, like the startup's AI assistant Grok. Beyond that, it's not clear what SpaceX envisions the device to be for, or if it intends to actually sell it. While Grok is easily accessible through the web, the X app or the standalone Grok app, offering your AI assistant through someone else's platform comes with certain disadvantages. For example, SpaceX has to share a cut of its subscription revenue with Apple for any subscriptions it sells through the iPhone.

It's also at the mercy of a given platform's app store rules. Avoiding those roadblocks is why Meta and others are trying to get their own hardware platforms off the ground rather than run their businesses on iOS or Android. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is on the record as not being particularly enthusiastic about the idea of making a mobile device, but the stars have aligned to make it at least make it possible. In July 2025, SpaceX partnered with T-Mobile to offer access to Starlink's satellite network on smartphones. If it wanted to, it's not hard to imagine SpaceX offering something similar for an AI device of its own.

Then again, it's best to take any new product connected to Musk or one of his companies with a grain of salt. While SpaceX is certainly more above board than Tesla and its promises of personal robots and self-driving cars, it's entirely possible this AI device was shown off to excite investors rather than signal some new direction for the company.