Elon Musk insulted Paris prosecutors by calling them 'mentally retarded' on X, following a report to US authorities about possible manipulation to artificially boost the value of his companies X and xAI. The parquet suspects a controversy over deepfakes generated by the Grok AI was orchestrated ahead of a June 2026 IPO.
On March 21, 2026, the Paris parquet reported to US authorities suspicions of 'artificial valuation' of the social network X and the AI startup xAI, both owned by Elon Musk. According to the parquet, as quoted by AFP, the controversy over sexual deepfakes generated by Grok, X's AI agent, might have been deliberately created. This would aim to inflate the value of these companies ahead of the planned June 2026 IPO of a new entity from the SpaceX and xAI merger, while X was experiencing a clear loss of momentum. Elon Musk responded on Saturday on X in French: 'Ce sont des attardés mentaux' ('They are mentally retarded'), reacting to an AFP dispatch on the report. This clash occurs amid tensions over Musk's AI technologies and platform regulations.
