60億+60億：馬斯克的 xAI 又成功融資

AI, Elon Musk’s AI company, hasraised$6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
根據周四提交給美國證券交易委員會的一份文件，埃隆·馬斯克 （Elon Musk） 的人工智能公司 xAI 已籌集60 億美元。

Investors gave a minimum of $77,593, per the filing (97 participated, but the document doesn’t reveal their identities). xAIlater announced(confirming some earlier reporting) that Andreessen Horowitz , Blackrock, Fidelity, Kingdom Holdings, Lightspeed, MGX, Morgan Stanley, OIA, QIA, Sequoia Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Nvidia, AMD, and others numbered among them.
根據文件，投資者至少捐贈了 77,593 美元（97 人參與，但該文件沒有透露他們的身份）。xAI后來宣布（證實了一些早期的報道）Andreessen Horowitz、Blackrock、Fidelity、Kingdom Holdings、Lightspeed、MGX、摩根士丹利、OIA、QIA、紅杉資本、Valor Equity Partners、Vy Capital、Nvidia、AMD 等都在其中。

The new cash brings xAI’s total raised to $12 billion, adding to the $6 billion tranche xAIraisedthis spring. CNBCreportedin November that xAI was aiming for a $50 billion valuation — double its valuation of six months prior.
這筆新現金使 xAI 的總融資額達到 120 億美元，加上 xAI 今年春天籌集的 60 億美元。CNBC 在 11 月報道稱，xAI 的目標是 500 億美元的估值——是六個月前估值的兩倍。

Accordingto the Financial Times, only investors who’d backed xAI in its previous fundraising round were permitted to participate in this one. Reportedly, investors whohelpedfinance Musk’s Twitter acquisition were givenaccessto up to 25% of xAI’s shares.
據《金融時報》報道，只有在上一輪融資中支持 xAI 的投資者才能參與本輪融資。據報道，幫助馬斯克收購 Twitter 的投資者獲得了高達 25% 的 xAI 股票。

Musk formed xAI last year. Soon after, the company releasedGrok, a flagship generative AI model that now powers a number of features on X, including a chatbot accessible toX Premiumsubscribers andfree usersin some regions.
馬斯克去年成立了 xAI。不久之后，該公司發布了Grok，這是一款旗艦生成式 AI 模型，現在為 X 上的許多功能提供支持，包括X Premium訂閱者和某些地區免費用戶可訪問的聊天機器人。

Grok has what Musk has described as “a rebellious streak” — a willingness to answer “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.” Told to be vulgar, for example, Grok will happily oblige, spewing profanities and colorful language you won’t hear fromChatGPT.
Grok 具有馬斯克所說的“叛逆傾向”——愿意回答“大多數其他 AI 系統拒絕的尖銳問題”。例如，被告知粗俗時，Grok 會很樂意服從，噴出你不會從ChatGPT中聽到的褻瀆和豐富多彩的語言。

Musk hasderidedChatGPT and other AI systems for being too “woke” and “politically correct,” despite Grok’s ownunwillingness to cross certain boundariesandhedgeon political subjects. He’s also referred to Grok as “maximally truth-seeking” and less biased than competing models, although there’sevidenceto suggest that Grok leans to the left.
馬斯克嘲笑ChatGPT 和其他人工智能系統過于“清醒”和“正確”，盡管 Grok 自己不愿意跨越某些界限并在某些話題上對沖。他還稱 Grok 是“最大限度地尋求真理”，并且比競爭對手的模型更少偏見，盡管有證據表明Grok 傾向于保守。

Over the past year, Grok has become increasingly ingrained in X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. At launch, Grok wasonlyavailable to X users — and developers skilled enough to get the“open source” editionup and running.
在過去的一年里，Grok 在 X（前身為 Twitter）社交網絡中越來越根深蒂固。在發布時，Grok僅提供給 X 用戶，以及足夠熟練以啟動和運行“開源”版本的開發人員。

Thanks to anintegrationwith the open image generator Flux, Grok can generate images on X (without guardrails, controversially). The model can analyze images as well, and summarize news and trending events (imperfectly, mind).
由于與開放圖像生成器 Flux的集成，Grok 可以在 X 上生成圖像（沒有護欄，這是有爭議的）。該模型還可以分析圖像，并總結新聞和趨勢事件（不完美，請注意）。

Reports indicate that Grok mayhandle even more X functions in the future, fromenhancingX’s search capabilities andaccount biosto helping with post analytics and reply settings.
報告表明，Grok 將來可能會處理更多的 X 功能，從增強X 的搜索功能和帳戶 bios到幫助進行帖子分析和回復設置。

xAI is sprinting to catch up to formidable competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic in the generative AI race. The companylaunchedan API in October, allowing customers to build Grok into third-party apps, platforms, and services. According to The Wall Street Journal, xAI is preparing to release a standaloneconsumerapp similar to OpenAI’s in December.
xAI 正在沖刺，以在生成式 AI 競賽中趕上 OpenAI 和 Anthropic 等強大的競爭對手。該公司于 10 月推出了一個 API，允許客戶將 Grok 構建到第三方應用程序、平臺和服務中。據《華爾街日報》報道，xAI 正準備在 12 月發布一款類似于 OpenAI 的獨立消費者應用程序。

Musk asserts that it hasn’t been a fair fight.
馬斯克斷言，這并不是一場公平的戰斗。

In alawsuitfiled against OpenAI and Microsoft, OpenAI’s close collaborator, attorneys for Musk accuse OpenAI of “actively trying to eliminate competitors” like xAI by “extracting promises from investorsnot to fund them.” OpenAI, Musk’s counsel says, also unfairly benefits from Microsoft’s infrastructure and expertise in what the attorneys describe as a “de facto merger.”
在針對 OpenAI 和 OpenAI 的親密合作者 Microsoft 提起的訴訟中，馬斯克的律師指責 OpenAI 通過“從投資者那里獲得不為其提供資金的承諾”來“積極試圖消除”像 xAI 這樣的競爭對手。馬斯克的律師表示，OpenAI 還不公平地受益于 Microsoft 的基礎設施和專業知識，律師稱之為 “事實上的合并”。

Yet Musk often says that X’s data gives xAI a leg up compared to rivals. Last month, Xchangedits privacy policy to allow third parties, including xAI, to train models on X posts.
然而，馬斯克經常表示，與競爭對手相比，X 的數據讓 xAI 更勝一籌。上個月，X更改了其隱私政策，允許包括 xAI 在內的第三方在 X 帖子上訓練模型。

Musk, it’s worth noting, was one of the original founders of OpenAI, and left the company in 2018 after disagreements over its direction. He’s argued in previous suits that OpenAI profited from his early involvement yet reneged on its nonprofit pledge to make the fruits of its AI research available to all.
值得注意的是，馬斯克是 OpenAI 的最初創始人之一，在對公司發展方向存在分歧后，他于 2018 年離開了公司。他在之前的訴訟中辯稱，OpenAI 從他的早期參與中獲利，但違背了其向所有人提供其人工智能研究成果的非營利承諾。

An xAI ecosystemxAI 生態系統

xAI has outlined a vision according to which its models would be trained on data from Musk’s various companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, and its models could then improve technology across those companies. It is already powering customer support features for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service, according to The Wall Street Journal, and the startup issaidto be in talks with Tesla to provide R&D in exchange for some of the carmaker’s revenue.
xAI 概述了一個愿景，根據該愿景，其模型將使用來自馬斯克旗下多家公司（包括特斯拉和 SpaceX）的數據進行訓練，然后其模型可以改進這些公司的技術。據《華爾街日報》報道，它已經為SpaceX的Starlink互聯網服務提供了客戶支持功能，而且據說這家初創公司正在與特斯拉進行談判，以提供研發以換取汽車制造商的部分收入。

Tesla shareholders, for one, object to these plans.Several have sued Muskover his decision to start xAI, arguing that Musk hasdiverted both talent and resourcesfrom Tesla to what’s essentially a competing venture.
特斯拉股東就反對這些計劃。一些人就馬斯克創辦 xAI 的決定起訴馬斯克，認為馬斯克將特斯拉的人才和資源轉移到了本質上是一個競爭企業。

Nevertheless, the deals — and xAI’s developer and consumer-facing products — have driven xAI’s revenue to around $100 million a year. For comparison, Anthropic isreportedlyon pace to generate $1 billion in revenue this year, and OpenAI is targeting $4 billion by the end of 2024.
盡管如此，這些交易以及 xAI 面向開發人員和消費者的產品已將 xAI 的收入推高到每年 1 億美元左右。相比之下，據報道，Anthropic 今年的收入有望達到 10 億美元，而 OpenAI 的目標是到 2024 年底達到 40 億美元。

Musk said this summer that xAI is training the next generation of Grok models at its Memphis data center, which was apparently built in just 122 days and is currently powered partly by portable diesel generators. The company hopes to upgrade the server farm, which contains 100,000 Nvidia GPUs, next year; in its press release, xAI said it plans to fully double that number. (Because of their ability to perform many calculations in parallel, GPUs are the favored chips for training and running models.)
馬斯克今年夏天表示，xAI 正在其孟菲斯數據中心訓練下一代 Grok 模型，該數據中心顯然在短短 122 天內建成，目前部分由便攜式柴油發電機供電。該公司希望明年升級包含 100,000 個 Nvidia GPU 的服務器場;xAI 在其新聞稿中表示，它計劃將這一數字翻倍。（由于 GPU 能夠并行執行許多計算，因此是訓練和運行模型的首選芯片。

In November, xAI wonapprovalfrom the regional power authority in Memphis for 150MW of additional power — enough to power roughly 100,000 homes. To win the agency over, xAI pledged to improve the quality of the city’s drinking water and provide the Memphis grid with discounted Tesla-manufactured batteries. But some residents criticized the move, arguing it would strain the grid andworsenthe area’s air quality.
11 月，xAI 獲得了孟菲斯地區電力局的批準，新增 150MW 電力，足以為大約 100,000 戶家庭供電。為了贏得該機構的支持，xAI 承諾提高該市的飲用水質量，并為孟菲斯電網提供特斯拉制造的打折電池。但一些居民批評此舉，認為這會給電網帶來壓力，并惡化該地區的空氣質量。

Tesla is alsoexpectedto use the upgraded data center to improve its autonomous driving technologies.
預計特斯拉還將使用升級后的數據中心來改進其自動駕駛技術。

xAI has expanded quite rapidly from an operations standpoint in the year since its founding, growing from just a dozen employees in March 2023 toover 100today. In October, the startupmovedinto OpenAI’s old corporate offices in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood.
自成立以來，從運營的角度來看，xAI 的擴張速度相當迅速，從 2023 年 3 月的十幾名員工增長到今天的100 多名員工。10 月，這家初創公司搬進了 OpenAI 位于舊金山 Mission 社區的舊公司辦公室。

xAI has reportedly told investors it plans to raise more money next year.
據報道，xAI 已告訴投資者，它計劃明年籌集更多資金。

It won’t be the only AI lab raising immense cash. Anthropicrecentlysecured $4 billion from Amazon, bringing its total raised to $13.7 billion, while OpenAIraised$6.6 billion in October to grow its war chest to $17.9 billion.
它不會是唯一一個籌集巨額現金的人工智能實驗室。Anthropic最近從亞馬遜獲得了 40 億美元，使其融資總額達到 137 億美元，而 OpenAI 在 10 月份籌集了 66 億美元，將其資金增加到 179 億美元。

Megadeals like OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s drove AI venture capital activity to $31.1 billion across over 2,000 deals in Q3 2024,perPitchBook data.
根據PitchBook 的數據，OpenAI 和 Anthropic 等大型交易在 2024 年第三季度的 2000 多筆交易中將 AI 風險投資活動推高至 311 億美元。