Elon Musk reiterates that xAI is not raising capital right now

After reports suggested that Elon Musk and his artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI were in discussions to raise capital this week, Musk denied the reports, saying that he hasn’t been in talks with anyone about the supposed investment round.

Citing multiple people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported on Friday that xAI is seeking a $6 billion investment and was in talks with investors in Hong Kong. Shortly thereafter, however, Musk denied the claim on X, saying he has “had no conversations with anyone in this regard.”

xAI is not raising capital and I have had no conversations with anyone in this regard https://t.co/KyjeqnW9eu

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2024

The reports came after Musk also denied claims from Bloomberg this month, saying that xAI had gained $500 million in seeking a $1 billion investment. Musk went on to call the report “fake news from Bloomberg” in a post on X.

Earlier this month, Musk also said that he wasn’t comfortable developing Tesla into a leading AI and robotics company without around 25 percent of voting control at the company, ahead of plans for the board to discuss his compensation package in the coming months. During Tesla’s Q4 and FY 2023 earnings call held on Wednesday, Musk further detailed his reasoning, saying he simply hoped to help be a “steward of very powerful technology.”

“I’m not looking for additional economics. I just want to be an effective steward of very powerful technology,” Musk said during the call. “And the reason I just sort of roughly picked approximately 25% was that that — that’s not so much that I can control the company even if I go bonkers. And if I’m, like, mad, they can throw me out. But it’s enough that I have a strong influence. That’s what I’m aiming for — a strong influence but not control.”

Musk launched xAI last year, announcing the chatbot and OpenAI ChatGPT competitor Grok as its first product.

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