(Reuters) – Investors close to Elon Musk are in talks to help raise $3 billion in a round for his artificial intelligence startup xAI, valuing the company at $18 billion, Wall said. The Street Journal reported Friday.
Venture capital firms Gigafund and Steve Jurvetson are among the backers considering investing in the round, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
WSJ reports that backers include co-founders of other venture companies. However, the names of individuals and companies were not disclosed.
xAI's funding terms have not yet been finalized and plans are subject to change, the publication said, adding that current funding negotiations have gained momentum recently.
xAI could not be reached for comment. Musk's office did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Musk launched xAI last year in search of an alternative to Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet's Google.
Earlier this year, following media reports that xAI had raised up to $6 billion, Musk said xAI was not in talks with investors to secure funding.
In January, the Financial Times reported that xAI was in talks to raise funding at a valuation of $20 billion.
“xAI has not raised any funding and I have not spoken to anyone about this,” Musk said at the time.
In March, xAI announced an enhanced version of its chatbot Grok – Grok-1.5. This is a chatbot comparable to OpenAI's ChatGPT.
This chatbot is available to some users of X, formerly known as Twitter.
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)
