
Musk’s xAI joins Microsoft-BlackRock $30 billion AI fund
Microsoft Corp., the biggest backer of Sam Altman’s OpenAI, and BlackRock Inc., which has an executive on the artificial intelligence startup’s board, are joining forces with one of its chief rivals.
Abu Dhabi’s MGX, Microsoft and BlackRock said Elon Musk’s xAI is joining their effort to build $30 billion worth of data centers and other artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp., which was already named as a technical adviser to the group when it was announced last year, is also formally joining, according to a statement on Wednesday that didn’t detail member commitments.
Microsoft, which has invested about $13 billion in OpenAI, has increasingly been developing AI outside of that partnership. The software giant has created in-house AI models that it believes can compete with OpenAI, Bloomberg News reported this month. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, has meanwhile publicly feuded with Altman over the company’s efforts to shift to a for-profit structure.
MGX has also backed OpenAI, poured money into xAI, and is among entities helping bankroll US President Donald Trump’s $100 billion AI investment plan dubbed Stargate. It’s overseen by one of the world’s most influential dealmakers — Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan — who met Trump in the US this week.
Live Events
The capital demands and enthusiasm for AI have prompted a range of companies and investors to forge alliances to build some of the biggest data center campuses in the world. Sheikh Tahnoon planned to talk with Trump about