Elon Musk’s startup xAI is on the verge of securing a $6 billion funding round, valuing the company at $18 billion. TechCrunch reports that the funding round is expected to close soon, with investors gaining a 25% stake in the company. The initial raise of $3 billion at a $15 billion valuation was increased due to high demand from investors.
Notable participants in the funding round include Sequoia Capital, Future Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and Gigafund, all of whom are closely connected to Musk. Musk’s social media platform, X, also has a stake in xAI and stands to benefit from the company’s success.
xAI aims to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds by utilizing data from Musk’s other ventures like Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, and Neuralink. The startup’s chatbot, Grok, is already integrated into X/Twitter, providing distribution and serving as a customer for xAI.
Musk envisions a virtual cycle where Grok learns from data from his other companies to enhance various aspects of the physical world, such as self-driving cars and Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus.
Musk has been critical of OpenAI, a company he co-founded but left in 2018. He has openly criticized OpenAI’s co-founder and even open-sourced xAI’s chatbot, “Grok-1,” to differentiate his venture from OpenAI’s closed approach.
For more information, visit TechCrunch.
