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Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) have doubled down on Elon Musk, emerging as backers of the tech billionaire’s start-up, xAI.
In a blog post on the official xAI website, names of key investors included the chairman of KHC, along with the company, which is listed on the Saudi stock exchange (Tadawul) and has the backing of the country’s sovereign-backed Public Investment Fund, which acquired a $1.05 billion stake in KHC in 2022.
KHC’s international holdings also includes a sizeable stake in Musk’s X, which was valued at $1.89 billion in October 2022, when the micro-blogging platform changed its identity from Twitter following its takeover by the tech billionaire.
xAI, which is primarily focused on the development of advanced AI systems, is currently valued at $24 billion, following the latest funding round, which saw participation from other key companies, including investment firms Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, amongst others.
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 blog post said.
“There will be more to announce in the coming weeks,” Musk said in an X post, in response to the announcement of the funding.
(Reporting by Bindu Rai, editing by Daniel Luiz)
