Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has raised $15 billion from investors, CNBC writes, citing sources.
Investors added another $5 billion to the $10 billion funding round that became known in September. At that time, the startup was valued at $200 billion.
According to the channel's sources, much of the money will be used to purchase graphics processing units (GPUs), the hardware that is the basis for running large language models.
xAI is in the process of building large data centers equipped with tens of thousands of AI chips that will power its supercomputer. In Memphis, the company is facing resistance from environmental and human rights organizations that are trying to block the use of a gas turbine to power that data center, the TV station notes.
In March, xAI acquired Musk's social network X - the deal valued the platform at $33 billion.
Artificial intelligence startups have been reaching record valuations in recent months, raising huge amounts of capital to meet the growing demand for basic AI models, CNBC notes. For example, Anthropic raised $13 billion in September, roughly tripling its valuation from March. In October, Sam Altman's OpenAI held a $6.6 billion stock sale at a company-wide valuation of $500 billion. In late October, Reuters sources said the ChatGPT creator was preparing for an IPO that could value it at $1 trillion. However, in November, the company's CFO Sarah Fryer said at the WSJ Tech Live conference that an OpenAI stock offering is "not on the agenda" in the near term.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
