Elon Musk’s xAI emerges as critical OpenAI rival with $6 billion funding spherical, supercomputer plans
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What simply occurred? xAI is shaping as much as be a critical rival to market chief OpenAI after Elon Musk’s startup mentioned it will increase $6 billion in its Sequence B funding spherical. xAI was solely introduced lower than one yr in the past and launched its chatbot, Grok, final November.
xAI wrote that traders in its Sequence B fundraising embody Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The corporate says the cash shall be used to take its first merchandise to market, construct superior infrastructure, and speed up analysis and growth of future applied sciences.
xAI is happy to announce..https://t.co/uu0ioPgS8V
– xAI (@xai) May 27, 2024
Six billion {dollars} is not any small amount of cash, nevertheless it’s par for the course within the profitable AI trade. Anthropic has raised over $6 billion, whereas Microsoft invested an enormous $13 billion into OpenAI.
When Musk announced xAI final yr, the sixth firm below his management, he mentioned it had the purpose of understanding the “true nature of the universe.”
xAI launched its first and thus far solely product, Grok, in November. Musk mentioned the chatbot is modeled on the wonderful UK ebook/radio/TV collection (and the much less profitable Hollywood adaptation) The Hitchhiker’s Information to the Galaxy, which implies it likes humor, sarcasm, and sassiness, apparently.
After introducing the newest 1.5 model of Grok earlier this yr, it was lately reported {that a} supercomputer powered by 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs – round 5 occasions the quantity used within the present mannequin – is being constructed to energy the subsequent model of Grok, at a price of billions of {dollars}. Musk, who is looking the machine the “gigafactory of compute,” added that will probably be “at the least 4 occasions the dimensions of the most important GPU clusters that exist at this time.”
The Sequence B funding announcement states that xAI is primarily centered on the event of superior AI programs which might be truthful, competent, and maximally useful for all of humanity. Earlier than Grok, Musk talked about making a “most truth-seeking AI” that he known as “TruthGPT.”
Musk has lengthy been important of OpenAI, calling it “successfully managed by Microsoft.” He was one of many co-founders, backers, and preliminary board members of the ChatGPT maker, departing the corporate in 2018 over what he mentioned was a battle of curiosity with Tesla. The billionaire sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman earlier this yr over claims they breached their authentic contractual agreements by placing revenue forward of growing AI that advantages humanity. OpenAI responded by publishing a few of Musk’s previous emails.
Be a part of xAI when you consider in our mission of understanding the universe, which requires maximally rigorous pursuit of the reality, with out regard to recognition or political correctness https://t.co/jWEGDDnVk1
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2024
Musk repeated xAI’s request for extra individuals to hitch the corporate, including that its mission requires “maximally rigorous pursuit of the reality, with out regard to recognition or political correctness.”
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