VC Men Pour $250 Million Into Musk's ‘White Genocide'-Obsessed AI Business
He may be hated by a vast number of the world's inhabitants, and his chatbot may have fixations on 'white genocide,' but it sure looks like Silicon Valley's money men still have a soft spot for Elon Musk. Venture capital firms are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Musk's AI business, xAI, which is the company that, as of a couple of months ago, owns and operates X, Musk's social media platform.
The New York Times reports that, as part of a 'tender offer' deal, several prominent VCs, including Sequoia (which has invested in some of the most successful tech companies on the planet—from Google, Apple, and YouTube, to Nvidia and Whatsapp), have agreed to buy some $250 million of shares in Musk's company. A tender offer deal involves a company or companies agreeing to buy shares of stock in a particular firm directly from its shareholders.
The Times notes that many of the organizations involved in the new offer have previously 'invested in Mr. Musk's companies, including the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX.' One of those firms is Fidelity, the financial services company, which currently owns a significant amount of X's stock. Fidelity plans to purchase approximately $20 million in xAI's stock as part of the new deal, according to The Times.
The deal is yet another reminder that while Musk may currently be on the outs with the President of the United States, he is most likely going to be fine in the short term. There is still significant institutional interest in his companies, and it seems like orgs like Sequoia see a future in them.
xAI is the company behind Grok, Musk's 'anti-woke' chatbot that is, sometimes, surprisingly woke. It also has, on occasion, broken down and ranted about 'white genocide' unprompted. The company merged with X (the company formerly known as Twitter, which Musk bought in 2022) earlier this year.
True to form, Musk has made a lot of big promises about the robotics and automation opportunities his companies will produce in the years to come. He has alternately promised to launch a robotaxi business as well as to create a product line of domestic robots that will take care of Americans' household tasks. Relevantly, the billionaire's other company, Tesla, is busy suing one of its former robotics engineers, Jay Li, whom it has accused of stealing its trade secrets. The former engineer, who previously worked on Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus, has been accused of using tech developed at Musk's company to start his own company, 'Proception.' Neither Musk nor Li has shown the world anything particularly impressive on the robotics front.
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