Elon Musk's AI company raises $6B

Elon Musk's AI company raises $6B unknown

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, has raised $6 billion and made big advances over the last 12 months.

Mr. Musk launched the company in July 2023 to focus on developing advanced AI systems that are "truthful, competent and maximally beneficial for all humanity," according to a May 26 press release. Since its founding, xAI released Grok-1 in November, an AI model intended to answer nearly any question, followed by the improved Grok 1.5 model and Grok 1.5V with image understanding.

Sai Balasubramanian, MD, JD, a Forbes contributor, sees big potential for xAI in healthcare.

"The most obvious entry point for xAI is similar to what other large technology companies are attempting to do: increase task automation, improve clinical workflows, and optimize clinician productivity," Dr. Balasubramanian wrote in a Forbes article. "Technology giants are investing billions of dollars creating and training foundation models so that they can easily fit into the day-to-day healthcare workflow."

Key investors in xAI's funding round include Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding. xAI will use the funds to bring its first products to market, accelerate research and development and build advanced infrastructure.

In tandem with xAI's growth, Mr. Musk has announced big advancements with Neuralink, a neurotechnology company. Neuralink's first brain-computer device was implanted in a human earlier this year, and received FDA clearance to implant the chip into a second patient.