Elon Musk's xAI raises another $6 billion for Grok development

New financing per xAI. The startup founded by Elon Musk has in fact raised another 6 billion dollars to accelerate the development of Grokhis model of artificial intelligence for a few days also free on X, and thus compete with OpenAI and Anthropic. A document filed with the Security and Exchange Commission or SEC of the United States highlights how investors had to shell out at least 77 thousand dollars each to be able to participate in the second round, which follows another of 6 billion raised in the spring. Among the financiers are chip manufacturers Nvidia e AMDbut also Morgan Stanley, FidelityAndreessen Horowitz e Sequoia Capital oltre a Blackrock, Lightspeed e altri. Cnbc reported that xAI was targeting a $50 billion valuation in November, double what it was six months earlier. A dizzying rise, if you consider that it was only founded in March 2023.

xAI, $6 billion in funding to power Grok AI

Il Financial Times he added that only investors who had backed xAI in the spring were able to participate in the second round. The 6 billion dollars will be used, at least in part, to purchase 100 thousand chip Nvidia and fuel the company's computing capacity in the data center of Memphis. In Tennessee, Elon Musk has in fact signed an agreement to upgrade his plant with an additional 150 MW of energy, promising in exchange to improve the quality of drinking water and the supply of batteries by Tesla. The focal point of xAI's growth will be the enhancement of Grok, the “slightly rebellious” artificial intelligence model, according to Musk's words, also available on Premium subscribers and, in a limited version, for all users. Grok 3 is already in development as well as a standalone iOS app, and AI could handle various X functions in the future.

The AI ​​race sees xAI determined to make up the ground lost by OpenAIparent of ChatGPT, e Anthropicwho created his model Claude. Musk has repeatedly spoken of a never equal competition, accusing Sam Altman of wanting to eliminate rivals by convincing investors not to pour money into their coffers. Meanwhile, the market continues to grow. Anthropic has grossed $4 billion since Amazonbringing its value to 13.7 billion. In October, however, OpenAI collected 6.6, reaching 17.9 billion. According to the latest analysis from PitchBook, mega deals like these have driven the financing of venture capital in AI to 31.1 billion overall in the third quarter of 2024 alone.