Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is in advanced discussions to raise $15 billion in new equity at a valuation of approximately $230 billion, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. This represents a sharp increase from the $113 billion valuation the company had in March 2025 after acquiring Musk's social media platform, X.
The funding details were shared with potential investors by Jared Birchall, Musk's wealth manager, who oversees many of his personal financial arrangements. This development comes just a week after Musk denied a CNBC report claiming xAI was pursuing a similar $15 billion funding round at a $200 billion valuation, labeling it as false.
xAI is rapidly expanding its data-center operations to support more advanced model training, aiming to close the performance gap between its Grok chatbot and competitors like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. In June 2025, the company raised $10 billion—split between $5 billion in equity and $5 billion in debt—specifically for the construction of its Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee. SpaceX contributed $2 billion to that round, and Musk has publicly supported the idea of Tesla investing in xAI, though Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm has expressed concerns due to lack of board due diligence.
Recent leadership changes include departures of key executives from both X and xAI, such as Linda Yaccarino and chief financial officers. The AI sector is witnessing intense funding competition, with Anthropic closing a $13 billion round in September and OpenAI raising $6.6 billion in October, valuing it at around $500 billion. Additionally, a lawsuit filed by Musk's X Corp. and xAI against Apple and OpenAI over alleged anti-competitive practices may proceed after a federal judge rejected a joint bid to dismiss it.
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