Elon Musk seeks $1b for his AI startup to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT

Elon Musk's new AI venture, xAI, is on a mission to raise a whopping $1 billion, hoping to compete with OpenAI's popular ChatGPT technology. 

A recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Musk's company has already raised $134.7 million and is eyeing to achieve the billion-dollar mark.

The filing indicates Elon Musk's solid determination to gather the full amount, suggesting that the billionaire might have deals in place to achieve this ambitious goal. Just last month, Musk teased a ChatGPT-like chatbot named "Grok," trained on data from X, which he purchased for $44 billion a year ago.

xAI was launched by Musk in July, after hiring top-notch researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Tesla, and the University of Toronto. Musk has articulated that the company's purpose is to "understand the true nature of the universe."

Since the emergence of OpenAI's ChatGPT a year ago, the tech world has witnessed intense competition among giants like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and startups like Anthropic and Stability AI. OpenAI reportedly secured commitments of a staggering $13 billion from Microsoft earlier this year.

Musk's fundraising efforts come amid upheaval at OpenAI, with CEO Sam Altman returning after a brief dismissal, causing a delay in the company's anticipated share sale. Reports suggest that the sale, valuing OpenAI between $80 and $90 billion, faced delays due to the internal turmoil.