Elon Musk denies $500M investment in xAI amid valuation talks

by AMAKA NWAOKOCHA:

Elon Musk has denied the accuracy of a report claiming his artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, secured $500 million of a $1 billion goal from investors.
Musk  responded  to a user’s post on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “This is not accurate,” referring to a Bloomberg article.
According  to sources cited by Bloomberg, xAI is in talks about a valuation ranging from $15 billion to $20 billion, with potential adjustments in the coming weeks.
Musk and investors reportedly plan to settle terms in the coming weeks, with ongoing discussions about the possibility of obtaining computing power alongside or instead of xAI equity shares.
In November 2023, Musk  mentioned  that equity investors in X would get a 25% ownership stake in xAI. This implies that these investors are encouraged to invest at least 25% of the amount they invested in X into xAI, according to Bloomberg. For instance, if they invested $10 billion in X, they are invited to invest $2.5 billion or more in xAI.
In 2023,  Musk started xAI as an alternative to OpenAI , where he had philosophical disagreements. xAI’s chatbot, Grok, is powered by social media content from X.
The AI modeler, xAI,  secured a deal for the private sale of $865.3  million in unregistered equity securities, according to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 5, 2023.
The xAI Form D specified that the securities will be sold to accredited investors, subject to resale restrictions under Rule 506(b). The filing notes that $134.7 million of securities has already been sold, with the initial sale occurring on Nov. 29, 2023.