Elon Musk's xAI Company Plans to Launch Independent App to Rival OpenAI

According to The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk's xAI company is planning to launch an independent application in December or later, aiming to directly compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT through its Grok chatbot. Previously, due to differing ideologies, Musk departed from his role at OpenAI and subsequently founded xAI as an alternative.

Currently, users can only access Grok by subscribing to X services. Additionally, reports indicate that xAI provides customer support features for Starlink, another of Musk's companies under SpaceX. The Wall Street Journal's report did not disclose the sources' identities. In response to this report, X company has yet to comment.

Unlike chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude, which have all released standalone applications and free offerings, Grok primarily relies on X services for access, making it distinct.

Additionally, The Financial Times reports that xAI is preparing for a new funding round, expecting to raise up to $5 billion, which would double the company's valuation to $50 billion compared to six months ago. To thank the investors who supported his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, Musk is offering them a 25% stake in xAI or corresponding stock subscription rights.

If this funding round is successfully completed, xAI will have raised a total of approximately $11 billion. According to The Financial Times, Musk's supporters, including Fidelity Investments, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, are expected to benefit from xAI's equity holdings, thereby offsetting potential losses from their investments in Twitter.