(Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk said this Thursday, on platform X, that the CNBC report that his artificial intelligence startup xAI was raising US$15 billion in a Series E funding round is ‘false’.
This is the second time in about two months that Musk has denied a CNBC report, after saying in September that xAI was not raising capital, after the news channel reported that the company was raising $10 billion.
Thursday’s report said the capital infusion adds another $5 billion to the $10 billion round that valued it at $200 billion.
FREE TOOL
XP simulator
Find out in 1 minute how much your money can yield
In a response that seemed knee-jerk, xAI said ‘traditional media lies’ in response to a Reuters request for comment on the latest fundraising.
The AI startup has been increasing its data center capacity to train more advanced models, seeking to compete more effectively with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.
According to the report, much of the money raised will fund graphics processing units that support large language models.
Investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence companies has remained strong even as fears of an AI bubble have emerged due to sky-high valuations and massive spending plans.
xAI is also investing heavily in expanding its own infrastructure, acquiring properties in Memphis to build its planned Colossus supercomputer.
Elon Musk did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
