Elon Musk heats up the AI wars. He's seeking $1 billion for xAI.
- Elon Musk wants to raise up to $1 billion for his AI startup xAI, according to an SEC filing.
- So far, xAI has raised close to $135 million in equity financing, the filing says.
Elon Musk is looking to raise up to $1 billion to help fund his AI startup xAI.
Musk's search for new funding comes after the Tesla CEO and cofounder launched xAI over the summer. Its mission? To "advance our collective understanding of the universe," according to a statement on the company's website.
The search for new funding comes at a competitive time for artificial intelligence: Already, OpenAI's ChatGPT has caught the tech world — and beyond — by storm. (Microsoft has reportedly pumped at least $10 billion into privately held OpenAI.) Google has launched its chatbot, Bard. And Meta has released Llama 2.
For Musk's part, he launched the AI chatbot Grok in November under the xAI umbrella.
That came just four months after he launched xAI itself. So far, only those who pay for X, formerly known as Twitter — and who are accepted to the chatbot's early-access program — have access to Grok.
And this isn't Musk's first foray into AI: Years before the billionaire launched xAI, Musk actually cofounded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015.
But in 2018, Musk left OpenAI because his offer to run the company was rejected, he's said. He pulled his funding and left OpenAI's board. Since then, Musk and Altman have publicly traded barbs.
(Since then, Altman also has endured being fired from OpenAI in November only to be invited back later in the month.)
In seeking the latest equity investment, Musk's company filed papers late Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It comes as there's a lot of money sloshing around AI: OpenAI has reportedly been seeking a share sale that could value it at $90 billion.
So far, xAI has raised close to $135 million in equity financing, leaving more than $865 million left to raise, according to the filing.
If you're interested, be prepared to pony up at least $2 million, the SEC filing says. That's the minimum amount xAI will consider for investments to be accepted, it said in the filing.
xAI didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment before publication.