Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has secured a massive $6 billion funding round, bringing its total valuation to $12 billion. The investment was led by investors who previously backed the company in its previous fundraising rounds, including those involved in Musk’s Twitter acquisition.
The new cash injection will further fuel xAI’s development of its flagship generative AI model, Grok, which is already being integrated into X (formerly Twitter) and has gained notoriety for its willingness to answer “spicy questions” that other AI systems avoid.
Grok has been instrumental in powering various features on X, including a chatbot, and is expected to handle even more functions in the future. The model’s capabilities have raised concerns among competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic, who have accused xAI of being unfairly promoted due to Musk’s influence.
Despite these claims, Musk asserts that xAI has a unique edge thanks to X’s data, which he believes gives his company an advantage over rivals. xAI has already partnered with companies like Tesla and SpaceX, and its ecosystem is expanding rapidly, with plans to train models on data from these companies’ various ventures.
However, not everyone is pleased with the deal. Several Tesla shareholders have sued Musk, arguing that diverting resources to xAI has negatively impacted Tesla’s performance. Nevertheless, xAI remains a formidable player in the AI landscape, and its funding round demonstrates its growing influence.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/05/elon-musks-xai-lands-billions-in-new-cash-to-fuel-ai-ambitions