Musk targets investment of $1bn in xAI

Company's generative AI Grok getting wide release to X premium users

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Image: xAI

Last summer, Elon Musk launched his own alternative to the AI products of OpenAI (which has strong ties to Microsoft), Google and other competitors: xAI. He already managed to raise more than $100 million, but he is aiming much higher. According to documents filed with the US securities regulator SEC, Elon Musk wants to raise $1 billion.

The documents show that the world’s richest man has already managed to raise $135 million for his AI company. This came from four anonymous investors.

For someone like Musk, most analysts see this as an achievable challenge. However, his chaotic management of social network X (formerly Twitter) since the acquisition might scare off some investors.

It is also noteworthy that Musk announced last month that investors of X would own 25% of xAI.

Musk officially launched his AI company last July. He announced on X that his first goal was “understanding reality”. To do so, he has hired former employees from DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research and Tesla.

XAI’s first product, a generative AI chaitbot named Grok, launched in early November. To differentiate itself, Grok is fed all the real-time information available on X.

Musk’s chatbot reflects his rebellion and love of jokes. Grok is also meant to respond to ‘snappy’ questions that his competitors shrug off.

Initially, Grok was only available to a select group of users. However, Musk since announced it will gradually become accessible to Premium+ subscribers of X (starting at $16.94 per month).

Although xAI and X are currently separate companies, ties between the platforms do exist and are expected to continue to expand. Perhaps one day they will be merged into the ‘super-app’ Musk envisions.

Read More: AI Artificial Intelligence Elon Musk XAI