Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, X.AI, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a substantial equity offering, aiming to raise up to $1 billion.
This move follows the startup’s success in securing nearly $135 million from four investors, with the initial sale happening on November 29. X.AI also confirmed a “binding and enforceable agreement” for the sale of the remaining shares, as stated in the filing, reports CNBC.
Launched in July, X.AI’s mission is to explore the “true nature of the universe,” a vision prominently featured on its website. Recently, the startup introduced a new chatbot named Grok, inspired by “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Grok, which has undergone two months of training, possesses real-time internet knowledge and is designed to answer questions with a distinct sense of humor and a touch of rebelliousness. X.AI highlights Grok’s capability to tackle queries that are typically shunned by other AI systems. Grok so far is available for premium+ subscriptions on X.
The startup’s ambitions place it in direct competition with major players like OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Anthropic’s Claude chatbot. Musk, who was a part of OpenAI’s inception but left in 2018 due to differences with co-founder Sam Altman, aims to position X.AI as a significant contender in the AI space.
X.AI’s team comprises experts from DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Twitter, and Tesla, contributing to projects like DeepMind’s AlphaCode and OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 chatbots.
Established in Nevada in March, X.AI’s formation was driven by Musk’s recognition of the talent pool in the AI sector, which preferred the startup environment over established corporations like Tesla. This insight was shared by Musk during a Tesla earnings call in July.
