Grok 4.5 Launch: Why xAI Is Competing on Price, Not Just Power
Elon Musk's AI company just did something unusual: it launched a new flagship model and immediately started competing on price instead of bragging rights. Grok 4.5 launched on July 8, 2026, from SpaceXAI — the company formerly known as xAI, now folded into SpaceX after its acquisition earlier this year. It's not being sold as the smartest model on the planet. It's being sold as the cheapest way to get "Opus-class" performance for coding and agentic work. That pitch alone tells you where this industry is heading in 2026. Let's dig into what Grok 4.5 actually offers and why the pricing strategy matters more than the benchmarks.