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Disclaimer: This story was originally published on May 27, 2024.

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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has raised $6 billion in a series B funding round, it announced in a May 26 blog post, as AI companies scramble to secure significant funding in an increasingly competitive space.

The funding round saw the participation of several investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Sequoia Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, and Fidelity Management & Research Company, among others.

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his investment company Kingdom Holding also joined the round.

“The funds from the round will be used to take xAI’s first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies,” the company said.

The startup said it will continue on its “trajectory of progress” over the coming months and will be announcing “exciting technology updates and products” soon.

The latest investment brings xAI’s total valuation to $24 billion — shy of a year after it launched in July 2023.

In contrast, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has a valuation of $80 billion. Launched in December 2015, OpenAI was co-founded by Musk, along with Sam Altman and others. Musk left the company in 2018.

The latest announcement comes as funding in the AI space continues to heat up, with tech giants Microsoft, Amazon, and Google vying for a larger slice of the AI pie through substantial investments.

To date, Microsoft has invested about $13 billion in OpenAI, while Amazon put about $4 billion into Anthropic — an AI startup that also received $2 billion from Google last year.