Copyright © BusinessAMBE 2023
xAI,
In the news: xAI is seeking
- The company has ongoing negotiations with investor families in
Hong Kong , insiders told theFinancial Times . -
There are also said to be interested parties in the
Middle East ,Japan andSouth Korea . For now, all talks are still at an exploratory stage, multiple sources said. -
One of those the FT spoke to states that the bank
Morgan Stanley is coordinating the search for that$6 billion .Morgan Stanley already invested in Musk's 2022 acquisition ofTwitter , now X. It did not want to comment on the matter. - Musk himself vehemently denies all this: "xAI is not raising capital and I have not had conversations with anyone in this regard," he wrote in a post on X.
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Official documents prove otherwise. In December, xAI filed a report with the
US Securities and Exchange Commission stating that it is seeking$1 billion from investors looking to buy shares. According to the document filed, the company had raised$135 million by then.- Bloomberg news agency wrote in January that this amount had since risen to
$500 million . "Fake news," Musk called it.
- Bloomberg news agency wrote in January that this amount had since risen to
Musk versus the Biden administration
Zoomed in: Musk wants to compete with
- Musk was involved in founding
OpenAI , the startup known for its chatbot ChatGPT. In 2018, the billionaire stepped down, dissatisfied with its policies. -
Since then, he criticized
OpenAI and its top executiveSam Altman on several occasions. There was less development and more profiteering, the criticism read. "OpenAI should be renamed 'super closed source for maximum profit AI,'" he said in November.- Hence Musk's plans with xAI. A first project, the chatbot Grok, can currently be used by paying users of X. It also gets its information from the platform. As a result, Grok should be more up-to-date than ChatGPT. Previously, it appeared that it was easy to steer the bot toward incorrect news.
OpenAI , meanwhile, received a number of financial boosts, including from Microsoft, which invested$13 billion . Other startups are also finding support fromGoogle or Amazon.- So it is not illogical that Musk is seeking outside capital for his AI startup. That he denies this, presumably has more to do with a certain sense of honor.
The Bigger Picture: Seeking money in
- It is remarkable that Musk wants to find investors in
Hong Kong in particular. The Biden administration imposed restrictions on the opposite movement: investments by American companies to Chinese AI producers are under a magnifying glass.-
For example, there are restrictions on exporting advanced chips to
China , as well as to areas under Chinese influence such asTaiwan orHong Kong .
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For example, there are restrictions on exporting advanced chips to
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The actions of xAI could create additional geopolitical tensions. Furthermore, Musk is already regularly under fire over the way he invokes free speech as an argument for loosely moderating X. Thus, his relationship with the
U.S. government may come under further strain.
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