Elon Muskthe artificial intelligence startup, xAI Corp.is said to be in talks to raise a significant amount of funding, potentially up to $4 billion.
What happened: xAI is currently in talks with potential investors and this proposed funding round could see the company’s value rise to $18 billion, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing a person who received an email about the potential funding, including a pitch deck.
The company’s pitch, which includes a 20-page presentation, is being circulated among Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Highlights Musk’s successful track record in Tesla Inc. AND Space Exploration Technologies Corp. OR SpaceXas well as the potential for xAI leverage high-quality data from Musk’s social network, Xto train its AI models.
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Access to quality data is critical for developing large language models, which power AI chatbots. This is the area where xAI aims to compete with established players like ChatGPT-parent OpenAI.
Because matter: This news comes after a series of conflicting reports about xAI funding. In January, it was reported that the startup had secured $500 million in funding, a claim that was quickly denied by Musk. “xAI is not raising capital and I have not had conversations with anyone about this,” the tech mogul said at the time.
Meanwhile, Musk built the xAI chatbot last month Grok open source, a move that industry experts like Gene Munster expected would attract significant funding for xAI. “Musk reports that xAI has not raised and is not raising money, but I believe that will change soon because speed and deep pockets are key in the AI race,” Munster said, adding: “When it does, it will raise boats full of money fast.”
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