AI startup xAI, founded by one of the richest men in the world Elon Musk, seeks to raise up to $1 billion in equity offering.
Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, has filed with the US securities regulator to raise up to $1 billion in an equity offering.
The filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed the firm has so far raised $134.7 million in equity financing from a total offering amount of $1 billion.
The startup was revealed by Elon Musk in July 2023 to challenge OpenAI's ChatGPT with a 'pro-humanity' alternative offering.
It had been incorporated earlier in March and is intended to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic and others well-funded start-ups.
It was revealed in July that Musk would be CEO of the firm, alongside his other leadership roles at Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter.
Musk also operates tunnel developer Boring Company and brain implant firm Neuralink.
Musk had been mired in controversy after he had endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, which triggered an advertiser exodus.
Musk's X.AI has been busy since the summer launch.
The chatbot debuted with two months of training and has real-time knowledge of the internet, xAI claimed.
Musk had teased the launch by posting an example on X of Grok responding to a request for a step-by-step recipe for making cocaine.
He compared the construction of artificial minds to the calling up of unknown forces that could easily go beyond the inventor's control.
Musk had joined other well known figures at the time, such as Steve Wozniak and the late Professor Stephen Hawking, warning about the dangers of AI. But also in 2015 OpenAI was founded, and Elon Musk was part of it - serving as an initial board member.
However Musk resigned from the OpenAI board, after a conflict with co-founder Sam Altman led him to depart the project in 2018.
Musk also warned that OpenAI has strayed from its initial goals.
This Cyber News was published on www.silicon.co.uk. Publication date: Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:13:04 +0000