Elon Musk’s xAI Secures $6 Billion to Challenge AI Giants

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has raised $6 billion in new funding to support its growth and research. The latest investment, which involved major players like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Sequoia Capital, will help xAI expand its infrastructure and accelerate development. Musk shared that ‘a lot of compute is needed’ for the project, reflecting the scale of resources required for A.I. progress.

This funding round boosts xAI’s valuation to between $35 billion and $40 billion, a significant increase from $24 billion earlier this year. Musk’s company is positioning itself to compete with giants like OpenAI, despite launching later in the A.I. boom.

Founded in 2023, xAI quickly developed what Musk claims to be the world’s largest supercomputer in Memphis, which powers Grok, its chatbot available to X subscribers. Musk’s involvement in A.I. is not new—he was a co-founder of OpenAI but left in 2018 after disputes with its leadership. Now, Musk’s new company aims to catch up to OpenAI, which he has even sued for breaching its nonprofit roots and shifting to a for-profit model.

While Musk has raised concerns about A.I.’s potential dangers, he insists he can build safer, more responsible systems. His companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and X, have backed the venture, with xAI raising over $12 billion since its inception.