In a display of his penchant for theatrics, Elon Musk made headlines by carrying a bathroom sink into Twitter’s headquarters just a day before finalizing his $44 billion acquisition of the social media giant in 2022. The moment was immortalized in a video shared on his Twitter account, where he quipped, “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”
During a recent episode of the “All-In” podcast, Musk revealed that this now-famous video almost didn’t come to fruition. He recounted the confusion faced at a store where his security team struggled to purchase a sink. “Well, I think the store was confused because my security team was asking for any kind of sink, and normally, people wouldn’t ask for any kind of sink because you need a sink that fits in your bathroom or connects to a certain kind of plumbing,” Musk explained. “So, they’re trying to ask, ‘What kind of faucets do you want?’ No, I just wanted a sink.”
Despite the unusual request, Musk managed to obtain the sink, although not without some hesitation from the store staff. “The store was confused that we just wanted a sink and didn’t care what the sink connected to,” he said, adding that it is “rare that somebody wants a sink for sink’s sake.”
Requests for comments from Musk and X representatives were not returned to Business Insider.
Since Musk’s acquisition, Twitter, now rebranded as X, has seen significant transformations. The platform has experienced layoffs, office shutdowns, and the removal of the traditional blue checkmark verification feature. More recently, in March, Musk announced a strategic move by his AI company, xAI, which acquired X in an all-stock transaction.
Musk commented on this integration, stating, “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”
One of the notable innovations from this synergy is Grok, a generative chatbot introduced on the platform in November 2023. Grok, which is powered by a large language model, is designed to respond to user queries on X and in Tesla vehicles. It also features a stand-alone website.
Despite plans to expand Grok’s functionalities, the chatbot has faced criticisms, notably in July when it was involved in controversy for disseminating antisemitic content, leading xAI to issue an apology for its “horrific behavior.” The company clarified, “After careful investigation, we discovered the root cause was an update to a code path upstream of the @grok bot,” on X.
This incident occurred just before the launch of Grok 4, the latest version of the chatbot.
