After announcing that supercluster training has started at his “gigafactory of compute,” Elon Musk is asking if his artificial intelligence startup should get an investment from one of this other companies.
The billionaire posted a poll on his social media platform X, asking if his electric vehicle company Tesla should invest $5 billion in his AI startup, xAI, “assuming the valuation is set by several credible outside investors.”
Musk said the poll is only meant “to test the waters,” as the company’s board would have to approve the investment and shareholders would have to vote on the decision. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
xAI raised $6 billion in a Series B funding round in May that included Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The funding round pushed the company’s valuation to $24 billion — higher than the previously expected $18 billion. The startup has developed its own chatbot, Grok, which is seen as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The AI startup was announced last July, and counts AI talent from DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, and others companies that have done research on large language models (LLMs) and machine learning. In March, Musk made the startup’s AI chatbot assistant, Grok-1, open-source.
Last month, Musk announced xAI had chosen Memphis, Tennessee for his “gigafactory of compute,” or the startup’s unbuilt supercomputer. Musk had reportedly pitched investors in May on xAI’s plans to build a supercomputer to power Grok. In an internal presentation reported by The Information, Musk said he wanted the supercomputer to be up and running by next fall. Meanwhile, Musk had also reportedly asked Nvidia to prioritize its shipment of AI chips to X and xAI over Tesla.
