December 6, 2023 – 8:06 AM PST
(Reuters) – Elon Musk said on Wednesday his artificial intelligence company xAI was not raising funds “right now”, a day after the startup filed with the U.S. securities regulator to raise up to $1 billion in an equity offering.
The company has raised $134.7 million in equity financing from a total offering amount of $1 billion, the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed on Tuesday.
Replying to a post on X by Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster regarding the financing, Musk said: “We are not raising money right now”.
Munster’s post had said the fundraising meant Musk wanted to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic.
Reuters could not independently verify if the startup is currently raising funds or not.
Investments into AI-linked startups have surged this year following chatbot ChatGPT’s success and its parent OpenAI’s $10 billion fundraise from Microsoft (MSFT.O).
Musk launched xAI in July this year in response to Big Tech’s AI efforts, which he has criticized for excessive censorship and a lack of adequate safety measures.
Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath