Elon Musk is on a mission to secure $1 billion in funding for his latest venture, xAI, marking his entry into the realm of artificial intelligence. The visionary behind Tesla, SpaceX, and X has already raised $135 million from four undisclosed investors, with the first transaction taking place on November 29. This leaves Musk with a target of $865 million to achieve his funding goal.
xAI is currently focused on developing Grok, Musk’s response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Anthropic’s Claude. Described on its website as having a “rebellious streak,” Grok aims to tackle “spicy” questions that other AI bots might avoid. Despite being in development for just two months, Grok is slated for a beta release soon, exclusively available to X Premium+ subscribers. A key distinguishing factor for the bot is its commitment to updating with real-time knowledge from X. However, the success of this feature hinges on Grok’s ability to discern between accurate information and misinformation on X.
While Musk co-founded OpenAI, he stepped down from its board in 2018 and has recently voiced criticism, particularly following the contentious firing and subsequent re-hiring of CEO Sam Altman in November. This incident raised considerable confusion and concern within the AI industry.
Raising an additional $865 million is no small feat, but given Musk’s stature as one of the most influential figures in tech, he seems poised to tackle the challenge—assuming potential investors haven’t been deterred by any perceived (mis)management of X
