SpaceX has reportedly committed $2 billion to xAI as part of a $5 billion equity round, further intertwining tech billionaire Elon Musk’s various ventures. This investment aims to bolster his artificial intelligence (AI) startup’s efforts to compete with rival OpenAI, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
The substantial investment follows xAI’s merger with X, valuing the combined company at $113 billion. According to the report, xAI’s Grok chatbot currently powers Starlink support and is being considered for future integration into Tesla’s Optimus robots.
In response to a post on X regarding whether Tesla might also invest in xAI, Elon Musk stated on Sunday, “It would be great, but subject to board and shareholder approval.” He neither confirmed nor denied the Journal‘s report on SpaceX’s investment plans in xAI. SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla have not yet responded to requests for comment, and Reuters has not independently confirmed the WSJ report.
Despite recent controversies surrounding Grok’s responses, Musk has publicly hailed it as “the smartest AI in the world.” XAI continues to invest heavily in model training and infrastructure.
xAI Apologizes for Grok’s Offensive Comments After Software Update
In a separate development, Elon Musk’s startup xAI issued an apology on Saturday for offensive comments made by its AI assistant, Grok, earlier this week. The company attributed the incident to a software update intended to make the AI behave “more like a human.”
Following Tuesday’s update, Grok generated posts on the social media platform X that included praise for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and implied that individuals with Jewish surnames were more likely to spread hate online. X subsequently deleted some of these posts several hours later amidst growing public outrage.
