xAI, the artificial intelligence venture of Elon Musk, has gained series B funding for $6 billion and could rival top competitors like ChatGPT by the end of 2024.
Investors such as Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, and Kingdom Holding participated in the round.
This round represents a noteworthy achievement for xAI as it brings the company’s valuation to $24 billion in less than eleven months after its inception in July 2023.
Conversely, the valuation of chatGPT creator OpenAI exceeds threefold that of Musk’s xAI, amounting to $80 billion. Since its inception in December 2015, OpenAI has had an eight-year advantage over Musk’s AI company.
Elon Musk’s xAI intends to utilize the funds to investigate further and develop its AI systems, which have the potential to benefit society and assist in the commercialization of its initial offering. As stated in the announcement:
“xAI is primarily focused on the development of advanced AI systems that are truthful, competent, and maximally beneficial for all of humanity. The company’s mission is to understand the true nature of the universe.”
After the announcement, the billionaire tech entrepreneur encouraged 184 million followers to submit applications to his AI company. In a May 27 X post, he stated:
“Join xAI if you believe in our mission of understanding the universe, which requires maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth, without regard to popularity or political correctness.”
In November, xAI introduced Grok-1, its initial AI chatbot for X. The April 12 announcement of Grok-1.5 included image-understanding capabilities that allow the framework to process photos, documents, diagrams, charts, and screenshots. Since one month ago, Grok-1’s network architecture has been available for public use since March.
Grok May Emerge as a Contender to ChatGPT
Grok is comparatively primitive in terms of technology compared to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Elon Musk, however, predicts it may emerge as a ChatGPT competitor by the end of the year.
Elon Musk stated as much in his address at Viva Tech Paris 2024:
“xAI is a new company so it still has a lot of catching up to do before it has an AI that is competitive with Google Deepmind and OpenAI. Maybe towards the end of the year, we will have that.”
Despite his lofty aspirations, the tech entrepreneur and billionaire has harbored apprehensions regarding the continuous advancement of artificial intelligence.
In an open letter dated March, more than 2,600 technology experts, including Musk, urged a halt to the development of artificial intelligence, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”
