Elon Musk’s xAI seeks up to $4 billion to compete with OpenAI

Elon Musk’s fledgling AI startup x.AI Corp is looking to raise $3 billion to $4 billion in a deal that would value the company at $18 billion, according to materials sent to investors.

Emails about the potential financing, including a roughly 20-page pitch deck, are circulating among Silicon Valley’s venture investing community, according to a person who received one. People close to Musk have had conversations within their own networks to gauge interest in participating in the deal, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

The terms and dollar values of the funding round are still in flux and could change, the person said. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported some details of the deal.

The pitch deck highlights potential selling points for investors — touting Musk’s track record at Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and noting that xAI will be able to train on the high-quality data from Musk’s social network X. Having access to data is crucial for building large language models, the technology that powers AI chatbots, an area where xAI aims to compete with other well-funded businesses such as OpenAI.