Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup, xAI, is set to raise $6 billion in a new funding round, valuing the company at $18 billion, according to a report by The Information. The funding round will see participation from high-profile investors, including Sequoia Capital, Future Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and Gigafund.
The funding will support Musk’s vision of a network of companies that function as a unified system, sharing data and resources to drive innovation and growth. According to a TechCrunch report, Musk’s companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, are already interconnected, collecting training data that will power xAI’s AI chatbot, Grok.
Grok, which has already been integrated into Musk’s microblogging platform, X, will run on the data from the other companies and grow from there. The potential benefits of this integration are significant, with Grok potentially enhancing Tesla’s self-driving cars and Musk’s humanoid robot project, Optimus.
The integration of xAI’s technology into X also means that the growth of the AI startup will directly benefit the social media platform, creating a potential synergy between the two companies.
The announcement of the funding round comes just a month after Musk open-sourced Grok-1, the latest version of xAI’s AI chatbot. Musk’s rivalry with OpenAI has been well-documented, with Musk suing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for allegedly betraying the original non-profit mission of the AI firm.
The new funding round is expected to close in the coming weeks, and with the support of Musk’s inner circle of investors and the integration of his companies, xAI is poised to make significant strides in the AI industry. The potential benefits of this integrated system are vast, and investors will be watching closely to see how Musk’s vision for a network of companies powered by AI unfolds.
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