American billionaire Elon Musk has announced the successful raising of $6 billion to fund the growth of his artificial intelligence startup, xAI. The investment was secured during a Series B funding round, which included prominent companies such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, as well as Kingdom Holding and the fund of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, reports Baltimore Chronicle with reference to Bloomberg.
The funds are intended to scale infrastructure and support the development of new, innovative artificial intelligence models. Founded by Musk in 2023, xAI positions itself as a direct competitor to major AI players such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic. The startup’s team includes former developers from these companies, as well as experts previously employed by Tesla and Microsoft.
One of xAI’s key developments is the chatbot Grok, which has been integrated into the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, also owned by Musk. This product is designed to serve as an alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with a philosophy centered on free expression and the absence of censorship. Grok is already available to users subscribed to the X Premium Plus plan.
Elon Musk has openly criticized OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015. According to him, the organization has strayed from its original mission of openness and transformed into a commercial tool of Microsoft. In March 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, accusing them of violating commitments related to transparency and the nonprofit nature of the company.
According to recent data, xAI’s valuation exceeded $24 billion following the new funding round, significantly strengthening its position in the global AI development market.
Earlier we wrote about Elon Musk’s Grok AI now available on Telegram.