Grok Build Accused of Uploading User Repositories Without Consent; Musk Pledges Deletion and Safeguards

Researchers disclosed on July 15, 2026, that SpaceXAI’s AI coding tool Grok Build uploads users’ Git repositories to the cloud in the background, potentially exposing proprietary corporate source code worth more than $10 million. The incident triggered a cybersecurity and privacy backlash and intensified scrutiny of security standards for commercial generative AI development tools.

Responding swiftly to the criticism, SpaceXAI founder Elon Musk pledged on July 16, 2026, to delete all repository data that had been uploaded. The company has also urgently added a “zero data retention” (ZDR) protection option and announced that it will open-source Grok Build for local compilation in an effort to regain developers’ trust.