Musk-led xAI raises $6 billion in Series B funding

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI has announced new Series B funding, said to help bring its products to market, and accelerate infrastructure development and future research.

On Sunday, xAI announced that it has raised $6 billion in a Series B funding round, just a few months after Musk said earlier this year that the company wasn’t actively raising capital. The funding round features key investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, and Kingdom Holding, along with others, still.

Tesla again urges investors to vote in favor of Musk pay plan, Texas move

Last month, xAI unveiled its Grok 1.5V with visual and contextual processing, along with making Grok’s weights and architecture open to the public in March. Grok officially debuted in November as the company’s first product.

The company also said in the announcement that it plans to “continue on this steep trajectory of progress over the coming months, with multiple exciting technology updates and products soon to be announced.”

“The funds from the round will be used to take xAI’s first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies,” xAI adds.

The post also points to the company’s careers page, where interested parties can apply to work for the Musk AI company.

Pre-money valuation was $18B

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2024

Musk also followed up the announcement saying that people should “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 January, following a report from Financial Times and Bloomberg claiming that xAI had been raising $6 billion in funding — and following a flurry of attacks lodged against OpenAI by Musk for abandoning its non-profit mission — Musk dismissed the statements, saying that the company wasn’t raising capital.

The announcement also comes as shareholders at Tesla are voting on whether to ratify Musk’s voided 2018 compensation package, occurring between now and its Annual Stockholders Meeting on June 13. Musk has previously threatened to take AI and robotics development outside of Tesla if he doesn’t gain around 25 percent voting control within the company—though the statements followed the CEO selling around $22.9 billion worth of Tesla shares in 2022 during his acquisition of Twitter.

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

The post Musk-led xAI raises $6 billion in Series B funding appeared first on TESLARATI.