Musk's company raises $6 billion for AI development

Elon Musk (Getty Images)

Elon Musk's xAI company has raised $6 billion in a Series B financing round backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, reports Bloomberg.

The fundraising, which was announced on May 26, comes less than a year after the debut of xAI and marks one of the largest investments in the development of artificial intelligence tools.

Musk's AI development is closely tied to X.com, the social network formerly known as Twitter, where xAI got its start with the Grok AI service.

The money will go to bring xAI's first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development of future technologies.

"There will be more to announce in the coming weeks," Musk said in a post on X in response to the funding announcement.

Although xAI did not disclose what it was valued at after the latest round of funding, other media reports had previously suggested that the company would be valued at between $18 and $24 billion.

The race to the top in artificial intelligence is heating up, with several investors committing large sums of money to startups looking to compete with market leaders like OpenAI.

Musk was one of the first proponents of AI, backing OpenAI before it introduced ChatGPT in late 2022. He later exited the company and advocated cautious development of the technology due to its potential dangers.