Musk denies report his AI company secures $500 million toward $1 billion funding goal

FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

(Reuters) -Elon Musk has said a report that his artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, has secured $500 million in commitments from investors toward a $1 billion goal is inaccurate.

“This is simply not accurate,” he said in a reply to a user post about the Bloomberg article on social media platform X.

The artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI is discussing a valuation of $15 billion to $20 billion, though terms could still change in the coming weeks, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

xAI could not be immediately be reached for comment.

Musk and investors are expected to finalize terms in the next couple of weeks, and some parties are evaluating whether they can get computing power in addition to, or in some cases instead of, xAI equity shares, Bloomberg reported.

Last December, Musk said his artificial intelligence company was not raising funds, a day after the startup filed with the U.S. securities regulator to raise up to $1 billion in an equity offering.

Musk launched xAI in July last 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 Gursimran Kaur and Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler and Raju Gopalakrishnan)