Elon Musk's AI startup xAI, which has only been in existence for ten months, is preparing a capital increase of 6 billion US dollars, at a valuation of 18 billion US dollars before financing. This would give investors a quarter of the company. The transaction, which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks, is based on the premise that the contract terms remain unchanged.
The Capital Increase Has Been Adjusted After Originally Being Planned at 3 Billion US Dollars with a Valuation of 15 Billion US Dollars. Due to High Demand Among Investors, the Numbers Were However Increased at Short Notice. According to a Reliable Source Close to the Transaction, Interested Parties Received an Email Confirming the New Amount and New Valuation, Noting That There Were Many More Interested Parties.
The participants of the financing round include renowned investors such as Sequoia Capital and Future Ventures, the latter co-founded by Musk's longtime friend Steve Jurvetson. Valor Equity Partners and Gigafund, whose founders are also part of Musk's inner circle, are expected to be involved as well.
The investors were primarily acquired through personal conversations on Zoom, where they interacted directly with Musk and Jared Birchall, the head of Musk's family office. xAI's vision of connecting the digital and physical world convinced many of the participants. Musk plans to use training data from his companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, and Neuralink to further develop the AI technologies.
This AI initiative is also intended to benefit Musk's other ventures, such as Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus. It is expected to be operational in Tesla's factories by the end of the year. Musk’s long-term vision is for the Grok chatbot he developed, which is already integrated into the social media platform X, to profit from the synergies within his group of companies.
The Implications of These Developments for OpenAI, the Company Originally Co-Founded by Musk, Remain to be Seen. Musk, who left the company in 2018 due to disagreements over its direction, has since differentiated his new AI initiative from OpenAI's approaches. The future dynamics in the field of artificial intelligence could be significantly influenced by these new developments.
