A not-so-surprising move from Elon Musk is that the SpaceX and Tesla boss has just acquired US chipmaker Intel for a tidy $133 billion, with a new Core xAI processor that will power the next-generation Xbox AI console.
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People familiar with the matter confirmed rumors from the last few months that a mystery buyer was looking at acquiring Intel as it was struggling, but Intel’s freshly-minted CEO Lip-Bu Tan will work alongside Musk, and strengthen the partnership between Intel and Microsoft to provide a US-made chip for the next-gen Xbox.
Riding the AI wave is something Elon has been doing since day one, with his xAI startup using its AI prowess inside of the new Core xAI processors, made on Intel’s new in-house 18A process node. We can expect the new Core xAI 9 Ultra processor to feature 16 cores and 32 threads at 6.0GHz, with an NPU capable of over 1000 TOPs for AI workloads, and a mystery new GPU architecture known as “APDxAI”.
In the next few months we’ll hear more about the new APDxAI GPU architecture, but Elon Musk has said that its future Xbox chip will be capable of 4K 120FPS with ray tracing enabled, with xAI-powered upscaling technology dubbed “xAISS”.
Looking to the PC side of things, the new Elon Musk-run Intel will unveil its new Core xAI family of processors at Computex 2025 in a few weeks time, with the Core xAI 3, Core xAI 5, Core xAI 7, Core xAI 9, and an exciting new Core xAI 69 that is a processor name only Elon could come up with.
For PC gamers, the new Core xAI processors will range up to 32 cores and 64 threads with unknown clock speeds at this time (hopefully we can see 6.9GHz, but who knows) for the flagship SKU. Elon Musk will tap into Intel’s semiconductor side with its in-house Intel 18A process node powering the new desktop and laptop CPU offerings from the company.
Over on the Xbox side of things, the next-gen Xbox will be powered by a custom Core xAI processor that will be at the heart of Microsoft’s new console, with the 16C/32T variant in the form of the Core xAI 9. We can expect 64GB of RAM and 2TB of Gen5 SSD, with the new APDxAI GPU expected to feature 69 GPU cores capable of 4K 120FPS gaming on the big TV inside of your living room.
Other than that, the new Xbox will also be joined by a portable Xbox console called Xbox Model X, lining up with the nomenclature of Tesla’s Model 3, S, Y, and X electric vehicles.
Looking into the future, the acquisition of Intel will send shockwaves through the industry, with Elon taking the CPU fight to AMD, and the GPU fight to NVIDIA. We can expect Elon Musk to attend Computex 2025, where we will see him debut the new Core xAI, new APDxAI GPU architecture, xAI-powered NPU, and the semi-custom SoC for the next-gen Xbox AI console.
Seeing this unravel is going to be a fun ride, especially if Elon can get Intel to use its Core xAI processors inside of X, xAI, SpaceX, and Tesla. We should expect more news on this in the weeks to come, as Computex 2025 is just over a month away now… it would be cool to see Elon Musk attend the TweakTown Computex 2025 party!
