xAI (company)
X.AI Corp.,[4][5] doing business as xAI, is an American startup company working in the area of artificial intelligence (AI). Founded by Elon Musk in March 2023, its stated goal is "to understand the true nature of the universe".[6]
This article is about a US company. For other uses, see Xai.xAI
March 9, 2023[a]
- Elon Musk (CEO)[1]
- Jared Birchall (CFO)[1]
c. 20 (2024)[3]
History[edit]
In 2015, Musk was the founding co-chairman at the non-profit AI research company OpenAI.[7][8] He reportedly committed to invest as much as $1 billion in OpenAI,[9] but stepped down from the board in 2018 after an unsuccessful bid to take over its management, the result of a disagreement over AI safety.[10]
xAI was founded by Musk[11][12][13] in Nevada[4] on March 9, 2023 and has since been headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.[14]
Igor Babuschkin, formerly associated with Google's DeepMind unit, was recruited by Musk to be Chief Engineer.[15]
Musk officially announced the formation of xAI on July 12, 2023.[16][17] He linked the date (7 + 12 + 23 = 42) to the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams,[18] in which a supercomputer calculates that the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is 42; and to the company's mission "to understand the universe".[19][6]
In December 2023, in an SEC filing, xAI revealed that it has raised $134.7 million in outside funding out of a total of up to $1 billion.[20][21] Despite the filing, Elon later claimed via X that xAI was not seeking any funding.[22]
Products[edit]
While xAI's stated goal is "to understand the true nature of the universe", one of its immediate objectives is to create an AI that is capable of advanced mathematical reasoning, something not found in current models.[23]
On November 4, 2023, xAI unveiled Grok, an AI chatbot that is integrated with X. xAI has indicated that the bot will only be available to X's Premium+ subscribers when it is out of beta.[24][25]