Elon Musk's xAI Startup Seeks $3 Billion Boost from Investors

Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, is seeking to raise $3 billion in a funding round to compete with rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic, potentially valuing the company at $18 billion. Musk's friends, including Steve Jurvetson and Gigafund, are reportedly in talks to back the fundraising. The competition for both investor backing and AI talent is intensifying, with high-level AI engineers being aggressively recruited and offered sky-high compensation. This reflects the fierce battle for a limited pool of workers with expertise in training large language models and troubleshooting new AI platforms.