Elon Musk is eyeing a billion-dollar funding round for his artificial intelligence venture, xAI. The visionary entrepreneur, known for his leadership at Tesla, SpaceX, and X, is actively seeking financial support for his upcoming project. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Musk has successfully secured approximately $135 million from four undisclosed investors in the initial securities sale conducted on November 29.
This implies that there’s still a substantial sum of around $865 million to be gathered to reach Musk’s ambitious target of one billion dollars. The filing discloses Musk’s role as the CEO and director of xAI, while Jared Birchall, a former executive at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley, is listed as one of the executive directors.
xAI is presently in the process of developing Grok, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, Elon Musk’s response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Grok, characterized by its rebellious personality, tackles provocative questions that often challenge other AI chatbots.
With a short development span of just two months, Grok is poised for an imminent trial release for +X Premium subscribers. What sets this AI chatbot apart is its ability to extract real-time information from X, enabling dynamic responses, continual knowledge updates, and enhanced conversational interactions.
The SEC filing outlines that the minimum investment threshold for external investors stands at $2 million, emphasizing the commitment to the purchase and sale agreement for the remaining aggregate principal amount sought.
Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, stepped down from its board in 2018. Recent criticisms of OpenAI, particularly following the reshuffling of its CEO, Sam Altman, in November, have caused substantial upheaval and concern within the artificial intelligence sector.
While raising $865 million presents a formidable challenge, Elon Musk’s influential stature in the technology domain adds a unique dimension to the endeavor, provided potential investors are undeterred by his distinctive management approach at x.
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