Author：Wall Street CN

It's not uncommon for large companies to make various demands of their bankers and lawyers when conducting major transactions. But before SpaceX's IPO, Musk made one particularly audacious request to Wall Street advisors.

According to media reports citing multiple sources familiar with the matter,Musk has asked banks, law firms, auditors, and other advisors involved in SpaceX's IPO to purchase a subscription to his AI chatbot, Grok.Grok is part of the SpaceX ecosystem.Some banks have agreed to invest tens of millions of dollars in the chatbot and have begun integrating Grok into their own IT systems.

In almost all large IPOs, banks go to great lengths to curry favor with the company about to go public and its CEO.After years of a scarcity of large IPOs, Wall Street is salivating over deals like SpaceX.This deal is expected to be one of the largest IPOs in history.

The IPO is expected to raise $75 billion, and SpaceX's valuation could even exceed $2 trillion.This means that Wall Street banks could earn more than $500 million in fees simply by providing advisory services.

Musk's ability to get banks to generate business for his AI chatbot demonstrates the enormous influence he wields over the banking industry, which is eager to gain access to his services.

Media outlets, citing several people familiar with the arrangements, reported that the banks' purchase of Grok subscriptions was not merely a gesture of goodwill. Musk insisted they buy the chatbot service. He also demanded that these banks advertise on his social media platform, X, though he was relatively less forceful on this demand.

Currently, five banks are expected to participate in this offering, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley.

The deals Musk reached with these banks are a major victory for SpaceX. SpaceX merged with xAI in February of this year, and its Grok is currently in a relatively lagging position in the artificial intelligence race, ranking fourth behind OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini.