Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, announced Sunday it has raised $6 billion in series B funding.
The round included participation from key investors including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, amongst others.
According to the startup, the funds from the round will be used to take xAI’s first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies.
With the new funding, the startup said it is hiring for numerous roles and seeks talented individuals ready to join a small team focused on making a meaningful impact on the future of humanity.
Founded in July 2023 by Elon Musk, xAI is a company working on building artificial intelligence to accelerate human scientific discovery.
xAI said it has made significant strides over the past year.
“From the announcement of the company in July 2023 to the release of Grok-1 on X in November, to the recent announcements of the improved Grok-1.5 model with long context capability, to Grok-1.5V with image understanding, xAI’s model capabilities have improved rapidly. With the open-source release of Grok-1, xAI has opened doors for advancements in various applications, optimizations, and extensions of the model.
“xAI will continue on this steep trajectory of progress over the coming months, with multiple exciting technology updates and products soon to be announced.
“xAI is primarily focused on the development of advanced AI systems that are truthful, competent, and maximally beneficial for all of humanity. The company’s mission is to understand the true nature of the universe,” the startup said in a blog post.
Announcing the fund round on Monday, Mr Musk, via his X handle, said there will be more to announce in the coming weeks while noting that the startup had a valuation of $18 billion before receiving the new funding.
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