The start-up xAI discussing record fundraising led by Elon Musk.

xAI, Elon Musk's ambitious artificial intelligence start-up, is preparing to make another major financial move. The young company, already backed by several billion dollars, is negotiating a $4.3bn equity financing round, alongside a $5bn loan. The goal: to fuel a frantic technological race where billions evaporate as quickly as GPUs are installed.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, is reportedly in talks to raise an additional $4.3bn in equity, on top of the $5bn already targeted through a debt offering, according to Bloomberg News on Tuesday, as per information from documents shared with investors.

Since its inception in 2023 until the recent launch of this debt financing, xAI has already raised $14bn in capital, the report says.

The financing needs reflect the high cost of developing advanced AI systems, which require expensive hardware infrastructure, massive computing power, and rare talent in a highly competitive market. According to the sources cited, xAI has already spent a large portion of the funds previously raised.

Commitments for the $5bn debt raise are expected on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the matter. In addition, xAI could benefit from a $650m  discount from one of its manufacturers, which would reduce certain costs.

xAI, which acquired the X platform (formerly Twitter) earlier this year, was valued at $80 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2025, up from $51bn at the end of 2024.

By comparison, its rival OpenAI announced in March that it wanted to raise up to $40 billion based on a valuation of $300 billion in a funding round led by Japanese group SoftBank.

For the record, Tesla CEO Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left the board of directors in 2018.