xAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has raised $20 billion (about 29 trillion won).
xAI said on the 6th (local time) that it secured $20 billion in a recently completed Series E funding round. Investors in this round included Qatar Investment Authority, Valor Equity Partners, StepStone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Baron Capital Group, among others.
Strategic investors included Nvidia and Cisco Investments. The company said they continue to support xAI's rapid expansion of computing infrastructure and the building of the world's largest graphics processing unit (GPU) cluster.
xAI said the funds raised this time will be used to expand data centers and advance the AI model "Grok." The company said "Grok 5 is currently in training, and we are focused on launching innovative new consumer and enterprise products that harness the power of Grok, Colossus, and X to transform how we live, work, and play." According to xAI, the combined monthly active users of X (formerly Twitter) and Grok total about 600 million.
xAI did not disclose the individual amounts from the companies that invested this time or the split between bonds and stock, but Bloomberg previously reported that Nvidia planned to invest up to $2 billion (about 2.9 trillion won). Citing sources the same day, Bloomberg reported in a follow-up that xAI planned partitioning of this fundraising into about $7.5 billion in equity and up to $12.5 billion in liability going into a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
This SPV will be used to purchase Nvidia processors, and xAI is expected to lease the chips externally for five years so that Wall Street financial firms can recoup their investments. Bloomberg said, "The unique deal structure, backed by the GPUs as opposed to the company, could provide a playbook for tech firms looking to decrease debt exposure."