Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has acquired Hotshot, a San Francisco-based startup specializing in AI-powered video generation tools, as announced by Hotshot’s CEO, Aakash Sastry, on X. The acquisition aims to enhance xAI’s generative AI capabilities and position it against competitors like OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Veo 2.
Hotshot’s advancements in AI video
Hotshot has developed three video foundation models—Hotshot-XL, Hotshot Act One, and Hotshot—over the past two years. Sastry remarked, “Training these models has given us a look into how global education, entertainment, communication, and productivity are about to change in the coming years.” He expressed excitement about scaling these efforts on xAI’s infrastructure, dubbed Colossus.
Founded by Aakash Sastry and John Mullan, Hotshot initially focused on AI-powered photo creation and editing tools before pivoting to text-to-video AI models, reflecting a strategic adaptation to market demands. The startup attracted investments from notable venture capitalists, including Lachy Groom, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and SV Angel, although it did not publicly disclose the size of its funding rounds.
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Sunsetting Hotshot’s services
As part of the transition, Hotshot will phase out new video creation features, having begun this process on March 14. Existing customers will be able to download their created videos until March 30. It remains unclear whether Hotshot’s entire team will join xAI, as Sastry declined to comment on staff changes.
Musk has previously indicated that xAI is working on its own video-generating models to supplement its Grok chatbot platform. During a livestream in January, he anticipated the release of a “Grok Video” model within a few months, underscoring xAI’s commitment to expanding its media generation capabilities.
Featured image credit: xAI
