xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, has raised a staggering $6 billion in funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This brings the company's total raised to $12 billion, with a valuation of $50 billion, as reported by CNBC. The funding round saw the participation of prominent investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Blackrock, Fidelity, and Nvidia, among others.

The new cash injection will likely accelerate xAI's efforts to develop its flagship generative AI model, Grok, which has been integrated into various features on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. Grok has been touted as a more "rebellious" and "maximally truth-seeking" AI model compared to its competitors, although it has also been criticized for its own biases and limitations.

xAI's rapid growth and expansion plans have raised eyebrows, particularly among Tesla shareholders, who have sued Musk over his decision to start xAI, arguing that he has diverted talent and resources from Tesla to a competing venture. However, xAI's revenue has already reached around $100 million a year, with plans to raise more money next year.

The company has outlined a vision to train its models on data from Musk's various companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, and to improve technology across those companies. xAI is already powering customer support features for SpaceX's Starlink internet service and is in talks with Tesla to provide R&D in exchange for some of the carmaker's revenue.

xAI's Memphis data center, built in just 122 days, is currently powered partly by portable diesel generators and contains 100,000 Nvidia GPUs. The company plans to upgrade the server farm next year and has won approval from the regional power authority in Memphis for 150MW of additional power. However, some residents have criticized the move, arguing it would strain the grid and worsen the area's air quality.

Tesla is also expected to use the upgraded data center to improve its autonomous driving technologies. xAI has expanded rapidly from an operations standpoint, growing from just a dozen employees in March 2023 to over 100 today, and has moved into OpenAI's old corporate offices in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood.

The AI landscape is heating up, with xAI competing against formidable rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic. OpenAI recently raised $6.6 billion in October, bringing its total raised to $17.9 billion, while Anthropic secured $4 billion from Amazon, bringing its total raised to $13.7 billion. According to PitchBook data, AI venture capital activity reached $31.1 billion across over 2,000 deals in Q3 2024.

As the AI race intensifies, xAI's massive funding round and valuation will likely have significant implications for the industry. With Musk's vision for an xAI ecosystem and his commitment to developing more advanced AI models, the company is poised to play a major role in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.