Elon Musk Contradicts Reports His AI Startup Seeking $1B In Equity Funding: 'Nothing Is Being Sought From Anyone'

In a bid to raise $1 billion, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence venture, xAI reportedly aims to secure equity investments, with nearly $135 million already in the bag from four investors. However, the tech billionaire has contradicted the report saying that the company is seeking nothing.

What Happened: On Tuesday, Musk's xAI submitted a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, first noted on Bloomberg, which does not disclose the names of the investors. It revealed that the company has been seeking this funding to bolster its standing against other AI companies.

However, the same day, Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) and stated "Nothing is being sought from anyone."

Musk, who co-founded ChatGPT-parent OpenAI in 2015 and left it in 2018 over some differences, launched xAI earlier this year saying that the platform aims to “understand the true nature of the universe."

The company has so far launched its first AI model, a chatbot named Grok, trained on data from the X (formerly Twitter). Notably, Musk also owns X which he acquired for $44 billion in October 2022 and then subsequently rebranded. 

See Also: Meet Team xAI: Musk’s Latest Brainchild Boasts Heavyweight Lineup From DeepMind, OpenAI, Google

Last month, Musk announced that equity investors in X will hold a 25% stake in xAI. He also announced that subscribers of the X's Premium+ package, which starts at $16 per month in the U.S., will gain early access to Grok. 

Musk has been a vocal critic of OpenAI, especially after it transitioned into a profit-making entity in 2019. He has referred to the startup as being “effectively controlled by Microsoft.” Microsoft Corporation MSFT has invested approximately $13 billion in OpenAI.

Although deeply involved in AI, Musk has expressed serious reservations about the technology. In March, he joined a group of researchers and tech industry leaders in urging developers to halt the training of powerful AI models.

However, he later admitted that his signature on the open letter demanding a pause on training powerful AI systems was more for the record than expecting a positive outcome. 

Image Via Shutterstock

Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. 

Read Next: Elon Musk To Discuss Tesla-xAI Partnership With EV Giant’s Board

This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include comments made by xAI founder Elon Musk