Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has raised $6 billion in its latest funding round. The announcement came late Sunday, marking a significant boost to Musk’s efforts to challenge OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.
In a blog post, xAI revealed its Series B funding participants included Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Saudi entrepreneur Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, and Fidelity Management & Research Company, among others.
Musk announced on X (formerly Twitter) that xAI’s “pre-money valuation” stands at $18 billion. He hinted at more upcoming announcements, while the blog post mentioned that the company would soon introduce “multiple exciting technology updates and products.”
The newly raised funds will be used to bring xAI’s first products to market, develop advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development of future technologies, according to the startup.
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Crucial Quote
Musk has called for AI developers to join xAI, emphasizing the company’s mission of understanding the universe through rigorous truth-seeking, without concern for popularity or political correctness.
Key Background
Musk founded xAI in April last year after criticizing OpenAI’s ChatGPT for being biased and politically correct. Musk, who was a co-founder and early supporter of OpenAI, has had a falling out with the company, culminating in a lawsuit. He claims that OpenAI has shifted from its original mission of creating an open-source artificial general intelligence (AGI) to benefit humanity, to focusing on profit maximization. Musk has also criticized Google’s Gemini AI tool, describing the company as a “woke bureaucratic blob.” In November, xAI launched its chatbot, Grok, which is currently available only to X users who pay for a premium subscription.
