Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI has closed a $6 billion (€5.5 billion) funding round at a valuation of $18 billion, as investor fervour for new challengers to OpenAI continues unabated. Measured by capital raised, xAI now ranks alongside Anthropic, which has raised more than $8 billion since it was established in 2021. The deal gives xAI a so-called post-money valuation of $24 billion once the new investment is taken into account. During its fundraising, backers of Musk’s other ventures, including X and SpaceX, were given first refusal to back xAI, people familiar with the talks told the Financial Times last week. At the time, Musk said in a post on X: “xAI is not raising capital and I have had no conversations with anyone in this regard.” --Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024

Source: The Irish Times May 27, 2024 13:57 UTC