According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has raised $6 billion.
According to the filing, investors contributed at least $77,593 (97 people participated, however their identities are not disclosed in the document). Reportedly, Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, Valour Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz were anticipated to invest in the round.
Together with the $6 billion tranche that xAI raised earlier in the year, the additional funding raises xAI’s total to $12 billion. Reports state that xAI was aiming for a $50 billion valuation, which would have doubled its value from six months prior.
Only investors who backed xAI in its prior funding round, however, were allowed to take part in this one. According to reports, up to 25% of xAI’s shares were made available to investors who contributed to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
Last year, Musk founded xAI. Shortly after, the business unveiled Grok, a flagship generative AI model that currently drives several X features, such as a chatbot that is available to X Premium members and free users in select areas.
According to Musk, Grok has “a rebellious streak” and is prepared to respond to “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”
Despite Grok’s own reluctance to cross certain lines and avoid discussing politics, Musk has criticized ChatGPT and other AI systems for being too “woke” and “politically correct.” Although there is evidence that Grok leans left, he has also described Grok as “maximally truth-seeking” and less biased than rival models.
Grok has gotten more and more integrated into X, the social network that was formerly known as Twitter, within the past 12 months. Only X users and developers with the necessary skills could get the “open source” version of Grok up and running at launch.
Grok may create images on X (controversially without guardrails) because of its integration with the open image generator Flux. Additionally, the model can (imperfectly, mind you) summarise news and popular events and analyze photos.
In the fight for generative AI, xAI is racing to overtake fierce competitors like OpenAI. In October, the company released an API that enables users to integrate Grok into third-party platforms, apps, and services.
A stand-alone consumer app akin to OpenAI’s is reportedly on the xAI roadmap for December release.
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