(CTN News) – Elon Musk’s AI startup has raised an additional $6 billion from investors, including Silicon Valley venture capitalists and a Saudi prince, bringing its valuation to $24 billion.
According to a blog post published on Sunday, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal contributed to xAI’s second round of funding.
Musk, who launched xAI in July last year, wrote on X that there would be “more to announce in the coming weeks” and that the business was valued at $18 billion before the latest funding.
xAI stated in its post that the new funding will be used to bring the company’s “first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies.”
The money positions the startup as a possible contender to OpenAI, the AI research group that created the immensely popular chatbot ChatGPT. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, stood down as chairman six years ago due to differences about the company’s future.
In November, xAI announced the development of an AI-powered chatbot dubbed “Grok” for paid users of X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, which Musk now controls. In a post on X, the billionaire stated that Grok was being taught with “real-time access” to the site’s material.
Since then, xAI has released versions of Grok 1.5 with enhanced long context and image capabilities, and the company is presently looking for engineers and researchers in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and London.
Future Announcements from Elon Musk
Investors, enticed by AI’s promise to transform the way people live and work, have poured billions of dollars into AI businesses in recent years.
Microsoft (MSFT) is OpenAI’s largest stakeholder, investing $13 billion. Last year, Amazon (AMZN) announced a $4 billion investment in anthropopic AI in exchange for half ownership.
Even the biggest businesses face significant challenges in bringing AI solutions to market.
Earlier this month, Google debuted an AI-powered search tool that summarizes results, so users don’t have to click through several links to receive quick answers. However, the function was criticized for providing inaccurate or misleading information, requiring the business to retract some results.