(San Francisco) Artificial intelligence startup xAI founded by Elon Musk, which wants to compete with OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT) and Google, is raising hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a document filed Tuesday with the SEC, the American stock market policeman.
The company founded in the spring hopes to raise up to $1 billion in a stock offering, according to its filing with the SEC.
It says it has already raised nearly $135 million from four investors, with the first sale taking place on November 29, and says it has reached a “binding agreement” for the remainder of the shares to be sold.
The leader of Tesla, SpaceX, X and Neuralink created xAI in response to the rise of OpenAI, which popularized generative artificial intelligence (AI).
This technology, which marked 2023, makes it possible to produce texts, images and lines of code on a simple request in everyday language.
In early November, Elon Musk introduced “Grok,” a generative AI chatbot like ChatGPT with real-time access “to the world’s knowledge via the X platform,” a “unique and fundamental advantage” according to the xAI website.
“Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious side, so don’t use him if you hate humor! », Further specifies the start-up. “It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems. »
Access to the Grok prototype is currently reserved for a limited number of users.
OpenAI obtained commitments worth $13 billion from Microsoft earlier this year.
This funding round from xAI comes as OpenAI experienced a few chaotic days last month, when boss Sam Altman was fired by the board of directors before being called back to the helm.
According to press reports, this tumultuous episode delayed a share sale expected to value the company between $80 billion and $90 billion.
Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with Sam Altman and others, as a non-profit organization and with the aim of doing so-called “open source” research, and not letting Google dominate this technology major.
He then left, and is now one of society’s most vocal critics.
“It wouldn’t exist without me, it was me who came up with the name,” he said during an interview on CNBC last May, saying he was “idiotic” not to keep a part of control.
