Elon Musk‘s artificial intelligence startup, xAI Corp., is reportedly in talks to raise a substantial amount of funding, potentially up to $4 billion.
What Happened: xAI is currently in discussions with potential investors and this proposed funding round could see the company’s value soar to $18 billion, reported Bloomberg on Friday, citing a person who received an email about the potential financing, including a pitch deck.
The company’s pitch, which includes a 20-page presentation, is being circulated among Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists. It highlights Musk’s successful track record at Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX, as well as the potential for xAI to leverage high-quality data from Musk’s social network, X, to train its AI models.
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Access to quality data is crucial for developing large language models, which power AI chatbots. This is the area where xAI aims to compete with well-established players like ChatGPT-parent OpenAI.
Why It Matters: This news comes after a series of conflicting reports about xAI’s funding. In January, it was reported that the startup had secured $500 million in funding, a claim that was quickly debunked by Musk. “xAI is not raising capital and I have had no conversations with anyone in this regard,” the tech mogul said at the time.
Meanwhile, last month Musk made xAI’s chatbot Grok open-sourced, a move that industry experts like Gene Munster predicted would attract significant funding for xAI. “Musk reports that xAI has not and is not raising money, but I believe that will soon change because speed and deep pockets are paramount in the AI race,” Munster said, adding, “When it does, he’s going to raise boat loads of money fast.”
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