Elon Musk Woos Investors from the Middle East for xAI

Elon Musk is in negotiations with some of the largest investors from the Middle East to secure fresh funding for his one-year-old AI start-up xAI. The company aims to double its valuation to approximately 45 billion dollars. These talks are another step to remain competitive in the race against OpenAI, which recently raised more than 10 billion dollars, and competitors like Google and Meta. Reports suggest that Musk has approached investors from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as existing investors such as Sequoia Capital and Valor Equity Partners. A financial valuation of 45 billion dollars was discussed—nearly double the valuation from a summer funding round. Valor Equity Partners is expected to lead the round with Sequoia Capital participating, although the negotiations are still in an early stage and the target valuation and investor participation could change. Although Musk's relationship with Saudi Arabia was strained due to his failed attempt to take Tesla private in 2018, these tensions now appear to have smoothed over. Musk recently spoke at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia, indicating a recovery of relations. He has also attracted interest from Qatari investors, particularly the Qatar Investment Authority, which was instrumental in his acquisition of Twitter. Currently, funding for AI start-ups is flourishing as the industry demands new technologies advanced by companies like OpenAI. These start-ups rely on maintaining close relationships with wealthy investors, chip manufacturers, and cloud providers to meet the immense financial and technical requirements.