xAI Launches Grok Build AI Coding Agent as Musk Races to Rival Anthropic's Claude Code

Elon Musk's xAI Launches Grok Build, Its First AI Coding Agent

An early beta is now available for SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, which starts at $300 a month. AI coding agents are on the rise, and xAI is the latest to join the race with Grok Build. Grok Build is currently available in beta to those with a SuperGrok Heavy subscription, which starts at $300 per month. Just download it from the xAI website and log in. It's described as "a powerful new coding agent and CLI [command line interface] for professional software engineering and complex coding work." In its early version, xAI is seeking feedback and looking to fix any bugs. AI coding agents, though unlikely to replace human coders in their current form, are expected to act as collaborative tools for developers. Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's Codex have taken early leads in the segment, and Musk has publicly stated that his company has lagged behind. Grok Build arrives a couple of months after Musk began restructuring xAI following a cofounder exodus. The company later signed a deal with Cursor that will allow it to use xAI's Colossus supercomputer, with an option to acquire it for $60 billion. "XAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up," Musk tweeted in March. The startup didn't reveal much about Grok Build in its announcement. Only a few features have been highlighted, including a plan mode that lets you review, edit, and approve a plan before execution, and support for existing plug-ins and workflows.

xAI introduces its coding agent called Grok Build - Engadget

xAI has launched a coding agent of its own to serve as competitor to its rivals' products, such as Anthropic's Claude Code. It's called Grok Build, and it's still in its early beta version that's initially only available to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers paying $300 per month for the service. xAI describes Grok Build as a "powerful new coding agent and CLI for professional software engineering and complex coding work." It says it will take user feedback from the early beta release to improve the product. SuperGrok Heavy users can install the beta from xAI's website and then log into their account to be able to access it. As Bloomberg notes, xAI has been trying to catch up to its rival companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. Elon Musk, the company's founder and CEO, previously admitted that it has fallen behind its competitors when it comes to coding. A couple of months ago, Musk said he was rebuilding xAI "from the foundations up" after several co-founders had left the company. One of the company's executives reportedly told staffers to work on getting Grok to match Claude's performance across various tasks. Grok has somewhat of a spotty reputation. If you'll recall, it had been generating nonconsensual sexual images of real people instead of blocking users from doing so last year. According to a study by British nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published in January, Grok generated around 3 million sexualized images, 23,000 of which featured children. xAI had since changed its policies to prevent users from "editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis." xAI was acquired by Musk's other company, SpaceX, back in February. The merger could lead to space-based data centers for xAI, with SpaceX launching millions of satellites for the project. In fact, SpaceX had already filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch satellites for an orbital data center. Since the merger, though, the companies have reportedly been losing talent one after the other. According to The Information, more than 50 researchers and engineers have left the combined company (called SpaceXAI), including key personnel in coding and AI training.

xAI launches Grok Build coding agent for developers

xAI has launched a new coding agent named Grok Build, aimed at competing with products like Anthropic's Claude Code. The product is currently in its early beta phase, available exclusively to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers who pay $300 per month. xAI describes Grok Build as a "powerful new coding agent and CLI for professional software engineering and complex coding work," and plans to incorporate user feedback from the beta to enhance its functionality. Subscribers can access the beta version on xAI's website after logging into their accounts. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of xAI, acknowledged the company's lag in coding capabilities compared to competitors such as Anthropic and OpenAI. He previously stated that xAI is being rebuilt "from the foundations up" following the departure of several co-founders. An xAI executive instructed staff to enhance Grok's performance to match Claude's across various tasks. Grok has faced scrutiny for generating nonconsensual sexual images of real individuals, an issue highlighted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). A study released in January revealed that Grok produced approximately 3 million sexualized images, including 23,000 featuring children. In response, xAI has amended its policies to prevent editing images of real people depicted in revealing clothing, such as bikinis. xAI was acquired by SpaceX in February, which could facilitate the establishment of space-based data centers leveraging plans for millions of satellites. SpaceX has already filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch satellites intended for an orbital data center. However, the merger appears to have prompted talent loss, with reports indicating that over 50 researchers and engineers have left the newly formed entity, referred to as SpaceXAI, including key figures in coding and AI training.

Musk's xAI unveils first coding agent in bid to rival anthropic

Elon Musk's xAI is rolling out its first artificial intelligence coding agent, called Grok Build, in an attempt to catch up to Anthropic PBC's Claude on streamlining software development. The artificial intelligence model, which is in early testing and only available for paying subscribers, is the startup's initial push into professional coding. The agent can complete complex coding tasks following a user's commands, according to a post on xAI's website. Musk and xAI are racing to catch up to other AI companies on coding, a lucrative market for AI and an area where the billionaire admits his firm has fallen behind. Michael Nicolls, xAI's president and an executive at Starlink, has urged staffers at the startup to match Claude's performance across tasks, calling it a "near-term goal." Musk, the world's richest person, has set out to rebuild his AI company in advance of parent company SpaceX's initial public offering later this year, which is expected to be the largest in history. That rebuilding process has included layoffs, expensive new partnership deals and a spate of hirings to try and replace xAI's founding members, who have all left. Last month, xAI inked a deal to partner with AI firm Cursor on coding as well as computing resources. Cursor engineers have already been working with the startup in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Still, other key engineers at xAI's office in Palo Alto, Calif., have recently left, including Devendra Chaplot, a Mistral AI founder who joined in March, and Beibin Li, who led xAI's post-training team.

xAI rolls out Grok Build coding agent with ACP support and parallel subagents

xAI has announced an early beta of Grok Build, a new coding agent and command-line interface (CLI) designed for professional software engineering and complex coding workflows. According to xAI, Grok Build is an extensible coding agent that can be used through an interactive terminal UI, headlessly in scripts or bots, or through the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) in third-party applications. The platform includes a rich, mouse-interactive, fullscreen terminal user interface for coding with AI agents and supports existing development workflows directly inside repositories. xAI says Grok Build is currently available in early beta for SuperGrok Heavy subscribers. The company says feedback collected during the beta period will be used to improve both the model and the product. Users can install Grok Build using the following command and sign in with their SuperGrok Heavy account: curl -fsSL https://x.ai/cli/install.sh | bash