Elon Musk’s startup xAI raises $6B in new funding round to challenge Grok rival ChatGPT
NY Post
Elon Musk is escalating the artificial intelligence arms race against his former colleagues at OpenAI by amassing cash for his own AI startup.
The Tesla mogul’s firm xAI — which powers the snarky Grok chatbot — announced on Sunday that it raised $6 billion in a fresh round of fundraising — soliciting investments from venture capital giants such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, as well as Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal.
The firm had a pre-money valuation of $18 billion, Musk said on X, meaning the latest round will push the startup’s valuation to $24 billion.
Musk, who was one of the co-founders of OpenAI when it was a nonprofit but then left after losing a power struggle with management, launched xAI less than a year ago.
Earlier this month, The Post reported that xAI’s valuation was expected to eclipse $20 billion due to surging demand from venture capitalists.
The money will be used to take xAI’s first products to market, build advanced infrastructure and accelerate research and development of future technologies, xAI said.
