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Billionaire Elon Musk’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Startup xAI announced on Sunday that it had raised $6 billion in Series B funding, raising its post-money valuation to $24 billion.
Investors in xAI’s $6 billion Series B round included Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, according to the company.
xAI in MasksThe company, which went public in July 2023, said it plans to use the funds to further develop and bring its products to market.
“xAI plans to continue this trajectory of rapid progress over the coming months with multiple exciting technology updates and product launches coming soon,” the company wrote. “The funds raised in this round will be used to bring xAI’s first products to market, build out advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development of future technologies.”
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Elon Musk’s xAI raised $6 billion in Series B funding. (Apu Gomez/Getty Images | Omar Marquez/SOPA Images/Via LightRocket/Getty Images)
Musk wrote in his X post that xAI was valued at $18 billion prior to the acquisition closing. Series B Funding Round.
“There will be more announcements in the coming weeks,” Musk added in a separate post.
The funding announcement was made by the company Launching the Grok chatbot In November, the feature was rolled out to X for users who purchased a subscription to the social media platform.
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According to Elon Musk, xAI was valued at $18 billion before the funding. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In December, xAI said in a regulatory filing that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) The company said it was looking to raise $1 billion from equity investors, of which it said at the time it had sold about $134 million.
Last year, several times Musk denies it xAI has revealed that it is seeking funding. In response to a Bloomberg News report in January that xAI was looking at a valuation of $15 billion to $20 billion, Musk said that was “not accurate at all” and attempted to quell reports of a funding filing with the SEC. “We are not currently raising capital,” he said.
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Elon Musk launched xAI as a rival to Sam Altman’s OpenAI. (Michael Kovac/Vanity Fair/Courtesy of Getty Images)
xAI’s announcement also said the company is “hiring for a variety of roles and is looking for talented people who are eager to join small teams focused on making a meaningful impact on the future of humanity.”
“If you believe in our mission to understand the universe, which requires the most rigorous pursuit of truth, regardless of popularity or political correctness, join xAI,” Musk added in X.
Musk launched xAI to compete with OpenAI, a company he co-founded but stepped down from the board in 2018 because he believed OpenAI was lagging behind. Google joins the AI race He also said pursuing AI initiatives at Tesla could create conflicts of interest.
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Earlier this year, he filed a lawsuit alleging that OpenAI violated its founding agreement to develop AI for the benefit of humanity, not for profit. Partnering with Microsoft.
OpenAI fought back The lawsuit said Musk left the board because he wanted to hold a controlling stake, become CEO and control the board. In an open letter, Altman and OpenAI co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever noted that they had discussed these dynamics with Musk and proposed that OpenAI merge with Tesla.
