👀 Copy Legendary Investors' Portfolios in One ClickCopy For Free

Musk's xAI startup looking to raise up to $6bn to mount ChatGPT challenge

Published 2024-01-26, 06:20 a/m
© Reuters.  Musk's xAI startup looking to raise up to $6bn to mount ChatGPT challenge
MSFT
-
MS
-
TSLA
-

Proactive Investors - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is looking to drum up $6 billion of funding to develop the Grok chatbot and its "mission to advance our collective understanding of the universe".

The company has hired Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), which is looking to tap investors in Asia, including Hong Kong, and the Middle East with talks about equity investments at a potential $20 billion valuation, the Financial Times reported today.

Led by Musk, xAI is a separate company from X Corp, the Nevada-based outfit says on its website, but acknowledges that it "will work closely" with the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, as well as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and other companies.

Grok, for example, is a large-language model generative AI, similar to ChatGPT, but is being trained using tweets on X with the aim of making it more up-to-date with events.

"Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask," the company says, with the chatbot designed to counter what Musk sees as 'woke' alternatives answer questions "with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak" as its X training would suggest and "answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems".

Led by Musk, xAI's management and senior technical team come from DeepMind, Tesla and the research teams of Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), along with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, of Musk was a founder but since parted ways.

The fundraising is "still testing investor appetite" the FT story said, with documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month confirmed xAI was seeking to raise $1 billion in equity funding.

It has raised $135 million so far, though a Bloomberg report this month said it had raised $500 million – though Musk said on X this was "simply not accurate".

Read more on Proactive Investors CA

Disclaimer

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.