Elon Musk said on 4 October 2026 that SpaceX’s artificial intelligence unit would be renamed SpaceXSI, following President Donald Trump’s order directing federal agencies to replace ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ with ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in specified official materials.

‘Yes, we will make that change,’ Musk replied to an X user asking whether SpaceXAI would adopt the terminology. Reuters reported that the account name remained unchanged when its report was published and that Musk had not announced a timetable.

Musk Embraces Trump’s ‘Super Intelligence’ Terminology

Musk’s response announced a planned name change for the unit rather than a completed rebrand. The unchanged X account established its public-facing name at the time of Reuters’ report, but did not establish the status of any internal or legal changes.

The proposal followed Trump’s signing of Executive Order 14434 on 29 September 2026. Titled ‘Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence’, the order sets out terminology changes for the executive branch while retaining the existing statutory definition of AI as its interim basis.

Its requirements apply to federal departments and agencies. They do not direct private companies to rename their AI operations.

SpaceX’s AI Business Is Becoming a Major Part of Musk’s Strategy

The order directs agencies, ‘to the maximum extent permitted by law’, to use ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory materials.

It does not require changes to previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants or historical documents. The terminology shift therefore does not mean every existing federal reference to AI must be rewritten.

For the order’s purposes, the new terms initially cover technologies already included in the federal statutory definition of artificial intelligence. The directive does not itself amend that statutory definition.

Within 60 days, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology must submit proposed legislative language to the president. The proposal must assess whether a new definition should modify, expand upon or supersede the existing definition and identify appropriate changes to statutory references.

In technical discussions, ‘superintelligence’ generally describes hypothetical systems whose intellectual capabilities substantially exceed human capabilities across a broad range of tasks. The order initially uses ‘Super Intelligence’ more broadly, as a replacement label for the existing statutory category.

Adopting that label does not establish that a technology has reached the technical threshold commonly associated with superintelligence.

SpaceX Reports Three Business Segments

SpaceX acquired xAI on 2 February 2026, bringing the maker of the Grok chatbot into the rocket company. SpaceX subsequently reported Space, Connectivity and AI as separate business segments.

Its second-quarter filing describes the AI operation as spanning AI solutions and computational infrastructure. Those activities sit alongside the company’s space operations and connectivity services.

In an earlier registration filing, SpaceX warned that the AI segment remained at an early stage of organisational and operational maturity. It identified integration, scaling and execution risks associated with combining xAI’s operations, employees, technology and infrastructure with its existing activities.

The proposed SpaceXSI name would apply to that AI operation. Musk’s announcement did not set out changes to its products or technical capabilities.

Clayton Leads Federal Task Force

Trump separately announced a ‘Super Intelligence Force’ on 4 October, appointing Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead the federal task force.

The group is intended to coordinate the administration’s work on AI. According to The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on its charter, reproduced by TechCrunch, it is expected to produce a report within 120 days addressing the technology’s risks and opportunities and the federal government’s role.

That reporting deadline is separate from the executive order’s 60-day requirement for proposed legislative language. One concerns the task force’s assessment of AI; the other concerns a proposed federal definition and statutory terminology.

Musk has not announced when SpaceXAI’s proposed name change will take effect.

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