Kalshi walks back xAI partnership announcement, sparks confusion and criticism
Prediction markets platform Kalshi Inc. abruptly withdrew its public announcement of a partnership with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI just hours after initially touting the deal on Tuesday. The reversal has ignited criticism of Kalshi’s communications strategy and raised questions about the platform’s internal coordination and credibility.
The day began with high-profile fanfare. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour publicly declared the partnership on Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn, praising Musk as an inspiration and claiming the collaboration would help “shape the future of news and information” while pushing prediction markets further into the mainstream. Bloomberg ran an exclusive headline announcing the partnership, reporting that xAI would provide AI-generated insights tailored for Kalshi users placing bets on political outcomes, global events, and economic trends.
But by Tuesday afternoon, the narrative had unravelled entirely.
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Sudden retraction raises eyebrows
Bloomberg issued a of the original story after Kalshi rescinded its statement. A company spokesperson said in a terse explanation that “details of the announcement had not been mutually confirmed.” Both Kalshi and xAI declined to comment on the current status of the collaboration, leaving readers confused about whether a deal had ever been finalised — or even truly existed.
Mansour’s glowing posts were quietly deleted from social media without explanation. Bloomberg, in an unusual move, followed up with a separate story highlighting the withdrawal of the earlier scoop and subsequently took down its original article, now yielding a “404 error” page.
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Communications meltdown
Observers were quick to criticise the amateurish handling of what was billed as a major announcement. “It’s hard to understate what a f*** up it is to give Bloomberg a scoop and then make them retract it later the same day,” wrote one commentator. “Bloomberg is not some mom-and-pop shop — Kalshi just wasted serious journalistic capital.”
Critics also blasted the company’s lack of transparency. Despite repeated inquiries, Kalshi has not provided clarification about the current state of the xAI relationship, fuelling speculation that the deal was either prematurely disclosed or collapsed behind the scenes.
“If the announcement wasn’t mutually confirmed, why was it pitched to Bloomberg and paraded on social media by the CEO?” asked one observer. “This isn’t just bad optics — it’s a fundamental breakdown in corporate communications.”
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High stakes for Kalshi and Musk-aligned players
Kalshi has become one of the few federally regulated venues in the U.S. where users can bet on outcomes ranging from presidential elections to Federal Reserve interest rate decisions. Its visibility has grown dramatically in the run-up to the November elections, and the platform has ties to political heavyweights. Donald Trump Jr. is a strategic advisor, and President Trump nominated Kalshi board member Brian Quintenz to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
xAI, Musk’s AI venture, has also been closely linked to the former president. Musk himself is reportedly a key adviser to Trump and the architect behind the so-called Department of Government Efficiency — a controversial initiative that claims to have slashed public sector jobs and spending.
The political implications of any collaboration between Kalshi and xAI are crucial, and the failed announcement has only intensified scrutiny of both companies’ operations and public messaging.
