Elon Musk’s xAI files to raise up to $1 bln in equity offering

Dec 5 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $1 billion in an equity offering, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
The company has raised $134.7 million in equity financing from a total offering amount of $1 billion, the filing showed.
Fundraising for AI remains a bright spot for startups this year, following OpenAI’s launch of popular chatbot ChatGPT last year and raising of $10 billion from its strategic backer Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O). Regulators, however, are concerned about the potential use of the technology to spread misinformation.
Musk has been vocal about his plans to build safer AI. In a Twitter Spaces event earlier in the year he said that rather than explicitly programming morality into its AI, xAI will seek to create a “maximally curious” AI.
XAI last month launched “Grok” a chatbot rivaling OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The artificial intelligence startup will be integrated into his social media platform X and also be available as a standalone app, Musk said in a post in November.
Reporting by Akash Sriram and Jaiveer Shekhawat in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa; Editing by Shailesh Kuber
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