keystone
Elon Musk's AI company xAI has raised $20 billion in new funding. As announced by xAI, backers include semiconductor giant Nvidia and the Emirate of Qatar.
Like other artificial intelligence developers, xAI needs tens of billions of dollars to expand its data centers, primarily using Nvidia's AI chips.
The tech billionaire's company did not disclose terms of the cash injection. The deal was months in the making, with xAI expected to take on about $12.5 billion in debt, according to information from Bloomberg. To that end, NVIDIA was planning to invest up to $2 billion. Such circular deals, where Nvidia invests in companies that buy the group's chip systems, are now typical of the AI business.
Among other things, xAI develops the AI software Grok, which recently sparked a new scandal. Grok specifically produced revealing images of minors at the request of users. This was subsequently described as a weakness in security measures. Already in the summer, Grok shocked users by praising Adolf Hitler.
Musk's company xAI now also incorporates the online platform X, which competes with competitors such as OpenAI and popular chatbots ChatGPT and Grok. Musk also wants to use artificial intelligence to power humanoid robots at his automaker, Tesla.
