Elon Musk's xAI wants to raise funds at $40B valuation
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, xAI, is looking for new funding at a valuation of around $40 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal, the funding discussions are still in their initial stages and details may change or negotiations could even fall through. The firm is yet to respond to requests for comment on the development.
Previous funding and valuation
The latest fundraiser comes just months after xAI raised $6 billion in a separate financing round. The company was valued at $24 billion as of its last funding round in May. If successful, the new deal would mark a significant jump in the firm's valuation, potentially making it one of the most valuable start-ups in the US.
Musk's ambitious plans for xAI
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh virtually, Musk detailed his ambitious plans for xAI. He plans to double the start-up's access to computational power or compute, a key resource that powers AI technology. "We already have with xAI the most powerful training cluster in the world and we are about to double it," Musk said.
xAI's competition and open-source commitment
Musk is positioning xAI as OpenAI's competitor, the current AI leader worth $157 billion. He launched xAI in July last year as an alternative to OpenAI's ChatGPT. The start-up raised $6 billion in Series B funding in May, hitting a post-money valuation of $24 billion with support from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Back in March, xAI disclosed plans to open-source its ChatGPT challenger "Grok," allowing the public to experiment with the code behind the tech.
