Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, has successfully completed a $6 billion Series B funding round.
This funding round saw significant participation from investors such as Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal through Kingdom Holding.
This milestone has propelled xAI’s valuation to $24 billion, achieved just 11 months after its launch in July 2023.
In comparison, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, stands at a valuation of $80 billion, having launched in December 2015, giving it an eight-year lead over xAI.
The newly raised funds will be utilized by xAI to enhance the research and development of its AI systems aimed at societal benefits and to expedite the launch of its first product.
The announcement highlighted:
“xAI is primarily focused on the development of advanced AI systems that are truthful, competent, and maximally beneficial for all of humanity.
“The company’s mission is to understand the true nature of the universe.”
Following the funding announcement, Musk reached out to his 184 million followers, urging them to consider joining his AI venture.
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He stated in a May 27 X post:
“Join xAI if you believe in our mission of understanding the universe, which requires maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth, without regard to popularity or political correctness.”
Last November, xAI introduced its first AI chatbot, Grok-1, on X.
This was followed by Grok-1.5 on April 12, which added image-understanding capabilities to process documents, diagrams, charts, screenshots, and photos.
Additionally, in March, the network architecture of Grok-1 was open-sourced.
While Grok is still in its early stages compared to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Musk anticipates that it could become a competitor by the end of this year.
Speaking at Viva Tech Paris 2024, he noted:
“xAI is a new company so it still has a lot of catching up to do before it has an AI that is competitive with Google DeepMind and OpenAI. Maybe towards the end of the year, we will have that.”
Despite his forward-looking goals, Musk has expressed concerns about the rapid development of AI.
“In March, over 2,600 tech experts, including Musk, signed an open letter calling for a pause on AI development, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”
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