Prediction market platform Kalshi announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, only to backtrack and retract the statement.
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour posted on Musk’s social platform X and LinkedIn on Tuesday, “No one has fought for truth harder than Elon Musk.”
“He has inspired me at every step. I could not be more excited to announce Kalshi’s upcoming partnership with xAI to further take prediction markets mainstream. Together, we’ll shape the future of news and information.”
“Prediction markets capture what people know — AI scales what people can know”
The post has since been deleted, and the story, which was originally reported by Bloomberg, has also been taken down. Bloomberg has posted a new story confirming the retraction. It appears Mansour may have jumped the gun on announcing the deal, as it was stated that “details of the announcement had not been mutually confirmed.”
Kalshi later stated,
“The statement was posted in error, and while Kalshi has had discussions with xAI, there is no formal partnership at this time.”
Kalshi building powerful connections
It remains to be seen whether the partnership will come to pass, but Kalshi has been building its connections with people in power. Donald Trump Jr. joined the company as a strategic advisor following his father’s election victory last year.
Trump Jr. posted on X, “On Election night at Mar-a-Lago, while biased outlets called the race a coin toss, my family and close friends used the prediction market Kalshi to know we won hours ahead of the fake news media.”
Kalshi expanded into election markets during the presidential campaign, and despite legal challenges, the markets appear here to stay. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) withdrew an appeal against the election contracts earlier this month.
Trump Sr. has nominated Brian Quintenz, a member of Kalshi’s board to lead the CFTC. Currently Caroline Pham is the organization’s acting chair following Chairman Rostin Behnam stepping down in January.
Eliezer Mishory, former Kalshi general counsel, also now works at Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The connections with the Trump administration are likely to gain Kalshi favor in their fight against state regulators over the legality of sports prediction markets.
If the partnership is later confirmed, it will strengthen Kalshi’s position in sports betting and election markets. The company claims to offer legal sports betting in all 50 states, much to the frustration of state regulators.
Six states issued the company with cease-and-desist letters last month following March Madness markets, but judges have sided with the company in cases in Nevada and New Jersey. This has paved the way for event contracts on NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL single-match winners.
AI could give users better insight
In the original Bloomberg story, it was reported that the partnership between Kalshi and xAI would “provide tailored information to offer guidance for bets made by the site’s users”.
The deal would have involved xAI’s models, such as the company’s chatbot Grok, helping Kalshi users by summarizing news and historical data to inform predictions. This would have marked one of the first high-profile applications of AI in regulated prediction markets.
The error in posting the partnership without a proper agreement on both sides, however, represents a major embarrassment to Kalshi. Any future announcements will surely be checked more thoroughly.
Adam is an experienced writer with years of experience in the gambling industry. He has worked as a content writer and editor for five years on sites such as Oddschecker, CoinTelegraph and Gambling Industry News, bringing excellent knowledge of the world of sports betting and online gambling.
