Last week, billionaire Elon Musk revealed his AI startup xAI's "companions": a hypersexualized goth anime girl dubbed Ani, and an extremely vulgar red panda named Bad Rudi.

The companions were clearly designed to spark controversy, with Ani happily undressing herself to xAI's likely male-dominated audience of Elon bros.

And if all that wasn't cringe enough, Musk has since added a third cast member, dubbed Valentine, to the mix.

This time it's a male companion, who looks suspiciously like a cartoonized version of a 2012 time when Musk dressed up as French writer and political activist Marquis de Sade — the guy that, uh, "sadism" is named after — for a costume party.

"Was v popular with women who'd read 50 Shades," Musk wrote in the caption of the photo, some 13 years ago, referencing the blockbuster romance novel. (The image has since mysteriously been deleted from X-formerly-Twitter, but we've taken the liberté, if you will, to post it below.)

Well over a decade later, Musk is seemingly trying to revive his costume party alter ego to serve as the inspiration for xAI's third "companion," in only the way a 54-year-old manchild could.

"His personality is inspired by Edward Cullen from Twilight and Christian Grey from 50 Shades," the richest man in the world tweeted, appending a picture of a dark-featured anime-style man with unkempt hair and an unhappy demeanor.

Needless to say, invoking Edward Cullen, the lead character from "Twilight," a teen movie that aired over 17 years ago,  and "Fifty Shades of Grey," a franchise that has turned into a punch line over the past decade, is a hysterically out-of-touch and woefully obsolete attempt to characterize what women are into in the year 2025.

Besides, Musk made no indication that he understood that the titular Christian Grey was directly inspired by Edward Cullen, having started out as "Twilight" fan fiction.

"What's the over/under Elon understands that Christian Grey is an Edward Cullen distro?" one user wrote on Bluesky.

Fortunately for Musk, women on his social media echo chamber were quick to point out a glaring missed opportunity.

"Should have been Mr. Darcy," one user suggested, referencing a central character of Jane Austen's 1813 novel "Pride and Prejudice."

The billionaire was quick to respond, making one of his signature dubious promises.

"We will, of course, have another character inspired by Mr. Darcy," he promised.

Add it up and it all feels like a desperate attempt to drum up a modicum of revenue for xAI, a company that's reportedly spending an astonishing $1 billion per month. (Did we mention that xAI is hiring a full-stack "waifus" engineer, who could make up to $440,000 a year?)

That's a burn rate even the company's spiking Grok 4 subscriptions on mobile won't get even close to covering.

Other than appealing to lonely edgelords on his far-right echo chamber,  Musk has been siphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars from his space company SpaceX and is openly discussing the possibility of using Tesla, a publicly traded company, to pump up his cash-burning AI startup.

In short, Musk's "Valentine" companion has his work cut out to woo enough subscribers to make up for billions of dollars in losses.

More on the companions: Users Immediately Find Grok's Anime Waifu Persona Has Hidden "Full Gooner Mode"


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