Key HighlightsShares of SpaceX jumped almost 10% following CEO Elon Musk’s declaration that the company “must win in AI”The rocket company unveiled Grok 4.6, marketing it as a budget-friendly alternative to ChatGPT and ClaudeAt $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens, Grok 4.6 undercuts competitors significantlyArtificial Analysis, an AI benchmarking company, placed Grok at the “intelligence frontier alongside OpenAI”Shares retreated 0.3% to $145.65 during Thursday’s premarket session, maintaining gains above the $135 IPO levelShares of SpaceX (SPCX) slipped 0.3% to $145.65 during Thursday’s premarket trading hours, retreating from Wednesday’s nearly 10% surge.Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCXThe initial spike followed remarks from CEO Elon Musk during a company-wide meeting where he emphasized: “We must win in AI because the future is overwhelmingly AI and robots.”Backing up those statements, SpaceX unveiled Grok 4.6 on Wednesday. The company markets this latest release as a “frontier intelligence” enhancement over Grok 4.5, while maintaining identical pricing.Grok 4.7 will exceed all current models. That said, Anthropic is a great company and will probably release improved models soon.However, the SpaceX training corpus is so awesome & unique that I would be shocked if any model is better at real-world engineering than 4.7.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2026Musk characterized the model on X as “Smart, fast & amazing bang for buck.”Competitive Pricing StrategyThe aggressive pricing structure represents SpaceX’s most direct competitive move. Grok 4.6 is available at $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens.By comparison, Anthropic charges $5 per million input and $25 per million output for Claude Opus 5. OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol commands $5 per million input and $30 per million output.SpaceX positions Grok 4.6 as delivering performance at “half the price of other frontier models,” a claim supported by the pricing data.According to Artificial Analysis, an AI evaluation firm, this release positions SpaceX AI “back to the intelligence frontier alongside OpenAI, behind only Anthropic.”Addressing Past ShortcomingsEarlier versions of Grok drew criticism for elevated hallucination frequencies and overconfidence in factual responses when compared to Claude and ChatGPT. Reviewers pointed out the model’s reluctance to acknowledge knowledge gaps.SpaceX seems to have addressed these concerns with the latest iteration.The updated model is accessible via Grok Build, Cursor, Grok Bot, and the API platform. Early adopters using Cursor and Grok Build receive double usage allocations for the initial seven days.Cursor, the AI-powered coding environment developed by Anysphere, became part of SpaceX through an all-stock transaction valued at $60 billion, announced June 16. The platform was instrumental in Grok 4.6’s development and deployment.This acquisition came after SpaceX and Musk’s xAI officially merged on February 2, bringing Musk’s artificial intelligence initiatives under unified management.During Tuesday’s company-wide gathering, Musk forecasted that AI-generated internet traffic will exceed human-generated traffic by a factor of 1,000 within the next five years.SPCX stock continues trading above its $135 initial offering price from its June 12 market debut. Following the Grok 4.6 reveal, shares peaked at $142.64 at 11:57 am ET Wednesday before moderating in after-hours trading.The post SpaceX (SPCX) Stock Retreats After 10% Rally on Grok 4.6 AI Model Launch appeared first on Blockonomi.