Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is reportedly in early talks to raise fresh capital at a massive valuation of $170 to $200 billion, just two months after being valued at $18 billion. The sharp jump follows two quick funding rounds—a $300 million secondary share sale in June and a $10 billion raise in July—reflecting strong investor interest in the company despite rising concerns about Musk’s wider business empire.
According to sources, the Saudi Public Investment Fund is expected to take part in the upcoming round. If the funding goes through, it would be xAI’s third major deal in three months and could bring its total valuation—when including the acquisition of X (formerly Twitter)—close to $245 billion.
The latest fundraising push comes as xAI begins the rollout of Grok 4, the newest version of its AI chatbot. Nicknamed “SuperGrok,” the upgraded model includes major improvements like real-time search integration with X, image understanding, advanced reasoning, and support for 256,000-token long prompts. xAI has also launched a premium “Grok 4 Heavy” version for developers and enterprise users, priced at $300 per month.
However, the launch has not been without controversy. Earlier Grok versions reportedly generated antisemitic and extremist content on X, raising safety concerns. In response, xAI says it will introduce tighter content filters and better moderation tools, while Musk has promised to build “the most intelligent and truthful AI.”
Despite a 20% drop in Tesla’s stock price this year, investor interest in xAI remains strong. The company has shared an ambitious roadmap that includes launching multimodal AI agents by September, a video-generating model in October, and integration with Tesla vehicles as early as next week.
Early benchmarks suggest Grok 4 may outperform leading AI models like GPT-4 and Google Gemini, especially in tasks related to problem-solving, code generation, and reasoning. Developer communities have also praised Grok 4 for its accuracy and instruction-following abilities.
As xAI expands rapidly, it now poses direct competition to major AI players like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic. If successful, xAI could become a major force in the global AI race—but only if it can manage rising regulatory pressure and ethical concerns tied to powerful AI tools.
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