Elon Musk's AI startup xAI Eyes raises $1 billion

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has made headlines this week with its plans to raise significant funding, although Musk has said the start-up is not actively seeking funding “right now “. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, xAI aims to raise $1 billion through an equity offering, with more than $134 million already secured. The company has reportedly entered into agreements for the sale of the remaining $865 million.

Contradicting this move, Musk responded to a post by Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster, clarifying that xAI is not currently raising money. Munster had suggested that the fundraising indicated Musk's intention to compete with major AI entities such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

The New York Post, citing a source, revealed that xAI's fundraising values ​​the company at between $4 billion and $10 billion, marking its first known funding round. This development follows Musk's announcement last month of the beta testing phase of xAI's “Grok” chatbot, designed to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard.

Musk, the co-founder of OpenAI, established xAI to challenge existing AI players, stressing the need for “ultimate truth-seeking AI” in response to what he perceives as censorship by Big Tech companies. Since its launch in July, xAI has attracted DeepMind talent from Google, Microsoft and other leading AI research organizations.

Although xAI operates independently, it maintains close ties with social media platform X and collaborates with Tesla. This ambitious venture represents Musk's continued involvement and influence in the rapidly evolving AI sector.