Cognition chief executive Scott Wu has publicly disputed a Bloomberg report that SpaceX sought to acquire his AI coding startup, writing on X that the story was inaccurate, that the two companies have not been in talks, and that Cognition "is not for sale," according to TechCrunch. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, had reported that deal discussions were no longer active but that the companies might still explore ways to collaborate.
The report landed amid a rapid expansion push at SpaceX. The company closed its $60 billion all-stock purchase of coding startup Cursor on August 15 and absorbed Elon Musk's xAI earlier this year, moves aimed at building an enterprise AI business that can compete with OpenAI and Anthropic. SpaceX went public in June, and its market value peaked near $2.3 trillion.
Cognition, for its part, has been raising capital rather than shopping itself. The company brought in $1 billion in late May at a $25 billion post-money valuation and is reportedly in early discussions for a new round at a $40 billion valuation, a figure that would place it among the most valuable AI startups in the world. Its enterprise customer list includes Mercedes-Benz, Citi, and Goldman Sachs.
Founded by Wu, a former competitive-programming standout, Cognition drew wide attention in 2024 with Devin, an autonomous coding agent designed to plan and carry out software engineering tasks end to end. The company broadened its footprint in 2025 by acquiring the remaining assets of Windsurf, the AI coding tools maker, deepening its position in a market where demand for AI-assisted software development has become one of the clearest commercial successes of the current AI cycle.
Wu's message, in effect, was that Cognition intends to keep pursuing that opportunity independently, backed by investors who have repeatedly marked up the company rather than under a larger acquirer's umbrella.