On Tuesday, Elon Musk took to X to highlight a surprising endorsement of his AI technology: Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks relies on Grok, the conversational AI model from Musk’s xAI company, as part of his day-to-day workflow.
The tech billionaire’s post came in response to Stripe co-founder John Collison, who had shared highlights from an interview with Ricks about how pharmaceutical executives keep pace with rapid scientific advancement. What caught Musk’s attention was Ricks’ candid admission about integrating AI into virtually every aspect of his work routine.
Ricks detailed the multifaceted approach he has to keeping current in the sciences. Beyond reading medical journals, attending data conferences, and calling scientists, for instance, the Eli Lilly chief said now, he has “one or two AIs running every minute of every meeting I’m in” to help him navigate complex science questions.
Ricks spoke of using both Claude and xAI’s Grok for their ability to deliver concise responses backed by reliable references. The level of AI integration at the executive level sends a signal of how deeply artificial intelligence has penetrated corporate decision-making, particularly in science-heavy industries like pharmaceuticals.
Grok Gains Corporate Credibility with High-Profile Endorsements from Ricks, Pichai, and Nadella
Musk seized on the mention, writing on X that it’s “cool that David Ricks uses Grok as his daily AI advisor.” The comment adds another high-profile user to xAI’s growing list of corporate adopters.
This public endorsement fits into Musk’s ongoing campaign to position Grok as a leading AI assistant for professionals and enterprises. The attention around Ricks’ usage comes alongside several other significant developments in xAI’s trajectory.
Earlier this year, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, congratulated Musk on the release of Grok 4, referring to its progress as “impressive.” Two months later, Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, welcomed Grok 4 into the Azure AI Foundry, underlining the model’s next-generation reasoning and responsible AI safeguards. These endorsements from competitive tech giants suggest Grok is gaining credibility beyond Musk’s ecosystem.
That momentum carried over into October, when xAI released Grokipedia, a Grok-powered encyclopedia of AI-generated content. It was a little glitchy in the immediate aftermath of its launch, but it stabilized rather quickly. Musk called it “version 0.1,” saying that “version 1.0 will be 10x better,” and positioning Grokipedia as an open-source alternative to Wikipedia.
Musk’s AI ambitions received a big vote of confidence last week when Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly reaffirmed his leadership during a pivotal moment for the company’s AI expansion. Investors approved Musk’s $1 trillion compensation plan with about 75% support, handing him about 25% voting control over the electric vehicle maker.
Wedbush Securities viewed the vote as validation of Musk’s role in what the firm termed the “AI revolution.” The investment bank said the shareholder approval opens “the most important phase in Tesla’s history” and reinforced its confidence in the company’s strategic direction as it pushes deeper into artificial intelligence and robotics.
The Dual Narrative of Elon Musk’s AI and Robotics Focus
Tesla’s AI chief Ashok Elluswamy last month emphasized Musk’s very singular place in the AI and robotics landscape. “Tesla is at a critical juncture of evolving into a global leader in robotics,” Elluswamy said, adding that developing large-scale, useful robots requires expertise spanning engineering design, manufacturing, and real-world AI software.
“Elon is likely the only person on Earth with deep skills and the right instincts across all these domains,” Elluswamy wrote, underlining the internal confidence in Musk’s technical leadership.
Despite these corporate endorsements and insider confidence, retail investor sentiment suggests something else entirely. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for xAI was marked as ‘bearish’ amid ‘extremely low’ message volume as of November 11.
One user said Musk seems more engaged with xAI these days, calling it the more “fun” company than Tesla, which is working on longer-range research targets for robotaxis and robotics. That leads to questions of priorities regarding where Musk is placing his attention with several high-profile companies.
A spotlight on Ricks’ daily Grok usage brings to light how AI is becoming an essential set of tools for executives worldwide who have to navigate complex technical fields, while also serving Musk’s bigger strategy to position xAI as a serious competitor in the enterprise AI market.
