Financial professionals at these firms have largely not adopted Grok for actual work
In the shadow of an anticipated public offering, Elon Musk's xAI is pressing its Grok chatbot into the corridors of Wall Street, leaning on longstanding alliances with Apollo Global, Morgan Stanley, and Valor Equity Partners to manufacture the appearance of adoption. The effort reveals a familiar tension in the technology age: the gap between installation and genuine use, between strategic positioning and earned trust. With nearly a billion dollars burning monthly and a SpaceX IPO on the horizon, xAI is attempting to retrofit ambition with capability — racing to become indispensable to an industry that has not yet found it necessary.
- xAI is spending close to $1 billion per month and urgently needs Wall Street revenue before SpaceX's expected IPO next month, making every week of delay a financial liability.
- Despite Grok being installed at Apollo, Morgan Stanley, and Valor, financial professionals are largely ignoring it for real work — the chatbot sits present but idle on trading floors.
- Grok's credibility problem is structural: industry insiders widely regard it as inferior to OpenAI and Anthropic's Claude, especially for the coding, modeling, and document analysis that banks actually demand.
- xAI is reorganizing internally — retraining Grok on financial tasks, hiring credit and modeling specialists, and reshuffling leadership — in a direct bid to match Claude's performance before the IPO window closes.
- The company's leverage is relational rather than technical: Musk's deep ties to these firms create access, but access alone cannot substitute for a tool that professionals choose to use.
Elon Musk's xAI is making a deliberate push into Wall Street, recruiting major financial firms to test its Grok chatbot in what amounts to a race against the clock. Apollo Global Management, Morgan Stanley, and Valor Equity Partners have all begun running Grok internally alongside competing tools — a move timed to demonstrate revenue growth before SpaceX, xAI's parent company, goes public next month.
The strategy leans heavily on Musk's existing network. Apollo has partnered with xAI on Nvidia chip financing, Morgan Stanley has been Musk's trusted bank for years, and Valor is led by longtime ally Antonio Gracias, who holds stakes in both companies. Yet the reality on trading floors is modest: financial professionals have largely not adopted Grok for actual work. The chatbot is installed but underused.
The pressure is acute. xAI burns through nearly a billion dollars monthly, with most revenue so far flowing from other Musk enterprises like Tesla and SpaceX. Grok is widely seen as inferior to OpenAI's tools and Anthropic's Claude — particularly for the coding, document analysis, and financial modeling that banks require. In response, xAI is restructuring. Chief revenue officer Jon Shulkin has moved into an advisory role, and Graham Seamans is now leading an expanded enterprise sales push. Internally, employees have been told that training Grok for financial applications is a top priority, with the company hiring credit specialists and modeling professionals to close the gap with Claude.
xAI's competitors have already identified Wall Street as a crucial growth frontier, knowing that financial firms adopt early and hold long-term licenses. The difference is that OpenAI and Anthropic built broad capabilities first. xAI is attempting to retrofit Grok for a sector it was not originally designed to serve — and whether installed access at three well-connected firms will translate into genuine use, and genuine revenue, remains the unanswered question at the center of the whole endeavor.
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI is making a calculated push into Wall Street, recruiting major financial firms to test its Grok chatbot in what amounts to a race against the clock. Apollo Global Management, Morgan Stanley, and Valor Equity Partners have all begun running Grok internally alongside competing AI tools, according to people with knowledge of the arrangements who spoke on condition of anonymity. The timing is deliberate: xAI needs to demonstrate revenue growth before SpaceX, Musk's rocket company and xAI's parent, goes public next month.
The strategy relies heavily on Musk's existing network. Apollo has worked closely with xAI on financing Nvidia chips. Morgan Stanley has been Musk's trusted bank for years and is expected to play a significant role in the SpaceX IPO. Valor Equity Partners, led by longtime Musk ally Antonio Gracias, is an investor in both xAI and SpaceX. Yet despite these connections, the reality on trading floors remains modest. Financial professionals at these firms have largely not adopted Grok for actual work, according to people familiar with the situation. The chatbot sits installed but underused.
The urgency is real. xAI has been burning through nearly a billion dollars monthly, with most revenue so far coming from deals with other Musk companies like Tesla and SpaceX. The company faces a credibility gap: Grok is widely viewed as inferior to OpenAI's offerings and Anthropic's Claude, particularly for financial sector tasks like coding, document analysis, and modeling. To close that gap, xAI is making structural changes. Jon Shulkin, the company's chief revenue officer and a driving force behind Grok's corporate rollout, has stepped back into an advisory role, according to internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Shulkin, who is also a Valor partner, was instrumental in pitching Grok as a tool for scraping internal company data for performance reviews and leveraging information from X, Musk's social media platform.
The company is now reorganizing around finance as a core priority. Graham Seamans, who joined xAI last year, is leading an expanded enterprise sales effort. Internally, employees have been told that training Grok for financial applications is a top objective. The company has been shifting personnel and hiring financial experts—credit specialists, modeling professionals—to teach Grok how to read documents and Excel spreadsheets with the fluency of Claude, and to handle financial modeling tasks that banks actually need. Michael Nicolls, xAI's president and a Starlink executive, wrote in an internal note last month that the company's near-term goal is to match Claude's performance.
This mirrors the strategy of xAI's competitors. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have identified the financial sector as a crucial growth area, recognizing that Wall Street firms adopt AI early and tend to maintain long-term licenses. The difference is that those companies built their tools with broader capabilities first. xAI is trying to retrofit Grok for a sector it was not originally designed to serve, racing to prove it belongs before the parent company's IPO window closes. Whether the installed base at Apollo, Morgan Stanley, and Valor will translate into actual usage—and revenue—remains an open question.
Citas Notables
Our near-term goals are to match Claude's performance— Michael Nicolls, xAI president and Starlink executive
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Why would these major banks agree to test something they're not actually using?
Because they're entangled with Musk. Apollo finances his chip deals. Morgan Stanley is handling his IPO. Valor is run by his friend. It's not a neutral evaluation—it's a favor wrapped in a business arrangement.
So Grok isn't ready for finance work yet?
Not compared to what's already out there. It can't do what Claude does with documents, spreadsheets, modeling. xAI knows this. That's why they're hiring financial experts and retraining the whole system right now.
Why the rush? Why not just build it properly?
Because SpaceX is going public next month. xAI needs to show revenue before that happens. The company is burning a billion a month. Most of that money has come from Musk's other companies. They need external customers, real contracts, to justify the valuation.
Is this going to work?
That depends on whether banks will actually use Grok once it's trained up. Right now it's installed but dormant. The real test is whether financial professionals will switch from what they're already using.
What happens if it doesn't?
xAI becomes a liability on SpaceX's balance sheet. A money-losing division with inferior technology in a crowded market. That's not the story Musk wants to tell investors.