Elon Musk's xAI Valued at $24 Billion After Securing New Funding to Compete Against OpenAI

By Madz Dizon

May 27 2024, 09:08 AM EDT

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has raised an additional $6 billion from investors, including Silicon Valley venture capitalists and a Saudi prince, bringing its worth to $24 billion.

xAI Valued at $24 Billion

Sequoia Capital, Andreesen Horowitz, and Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal were among the investors that contributed to the second round of investment, according to xAI's blog post on Sunday.

In a recent update, Elon Musk shared exciting news on X. He hinted at upcoming announcements in the following weeks and revealed that the startup's valuation reached an impressive $18 billion after securing new funding.

In its post, xAI mentioned that the additional funds would be used to bring the company's initial products to the market, enhance its infrastructure, and expedite the research and development of upcoming technologies.

The funding positions the company as a possible competitor to OpenAI, the AI research organization responsible for the immensely popular chatbot ChatGPT. Musk, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, decided to step down as chairman six years ago due to disagreements regarding the company's direction.

In November, xAI made an announcement regarding the development of an AI-powered chatbot named "Grok" for select users of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by Musk.

Elon Musk Addresses Funding Announcement

In a post on X, the billionaire mentioned that Grok was being trained through "real-time access" to information on the site.

According to Reuters, xAI plans to use the funds to bring its initial products to market, enhance its infrastructure, and expedite its research and development efforts for future technologies, according to a statement from the company.

"There will be more to announce in the coming weeks," Musk stated in another post, addressing the funding announcement.

Leading companies in the tech industry, such as Microsoft, OpenAI, and Alphabet, are fiercely competing to dominate the field of generative AI. This competition has resulted in significant investments and a wave of innovation in this rapidly evolving landscape.