Grok developer xAI has raised $5 billion in new funding, bringing its valuation to $50 billion, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The latest funding round, which was first announced on Friday, adds to the billions raised in May.
Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz were reportedly part of the raise, while Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund also participated, per the report, which cited unnamed sources.
Those same investment firms had previously lavished $6 billion on xAI, allowing it to continue on its “steep trajectory of progress,” the company announced back in May.
According to xAI, other firms who have invested in the AI developer include Vy Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, and Kingdom Holding.
Joining Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic amid a booming AI industry, xAI is part of a cohort developing consumer-facing artificial intelligence.
Tens of billions of dollars are being spent on the nascent tech, with a further $632 billion expected to be doled out by 2028, according to an August report by market intelligence firm International Data Corporation.
As part of that drive, Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk expanded his search for investors within the Middle East in October, including Saudi Arabia. At the time, xAI was valued at $45 billion.
Musk and xAI, that same month, tapped computer chip manufacturer Nvidia to use its Spectrum-X networking technology to expand its work on the xAI’s Colossus supercomputer.
Musk founded xAI in July 2023 to develop an AI to rival his former company, OpenAI, and its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT. When it launched last year, the OpenAI rival announced it had raised $134 million in funding, bringing its initial funds to $1 billion.
Last fall, xAI unveiled its answer to ChatGPT, Grok, which was integrated into X (formerly Twitter) for Premium subscribers. Grok, however, was rushed, a fact acknowledged by xAI.
Despite these early stumblings, Grok continues to evolve. In August, Grok 2 launched, which featured image generation, and according to Elon Musk, the next version of Grok is expected to launch in December.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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Jason Nelson
https://decrypt.co/292741/elon-musks-xai-now-valued-at-50-billion-following-fresh-capital-injection
2024-11-21 03:09:39
