Elon Musk’s xAI seeks up to $200bn valuation in next fundraising
埃隆·马斯克的 xAI 在下一轮融资中寻求高达 2000 亿美元的估值

Elon Musk’s xAI is preparing to raise more money from investors in a deal that could value the artificial intelligence company as high as $200bn — 10 times its value early last year, according to people close to the talks.
据接近谈判的人士透露，埃隆·马斯克的 xAI 正准备从投资者那里筹集更多资金，这笔交易可能使这家人工智能公司的估值高达 2000 亿美元——是去年年初估值的 10 倍。

The fundraising, which is being discussed and could start formally as soon as next month, would be its third large share sale in less than two months. It raised $10bn through loans and cash investments in July, and in June sold $300mn of shares in a secondary stock offering.
这轮融资正在讨论中，最早可能于下月正式启动，这将是其不到两个月内的第三次大规模股票出售。今年 7 月，xAI 通过贷款和现金投资筹集了 100 亿美元，6 月则通过二级股票发行出售了 3 亿美元的股份。

A deal would also cement a rapid rise in xAI’s valuation from the $18bn set in its “series B” fundraising in May 2024.
这笔交易还将巩固 xAI 估值的快速增长，较 2024 年 5 月其“B 轮”融资时的 180 亿美元估值大幅提升。

The company this week released the fourth model of its Grok chatbot, which posts on Musk’s social media platform X — days after the bot repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler and shared antisemitic rhetoric on the platform. The company pledged to ban hate speech from its posts.
该公司本周发布了其 Grok 聊天机器人的第四个版本，该机器人在马斯克的社交媒体平台 X 上发帖——几天前该机器人曾多次赞扬阿道夫·希特勒并在平台上发布反犹太言论。公司承诺将禁止其帖子中的仇恨言论。

Three people close to the process said the new fundraising would target a valuation of between $170bn and $200bn. They cautioned the talks were preliminary and the details could change.
三位接近此过程的人士表示，此次新一轮融资的目标估值在 1700 亿美元至 2000 亿美元之间。他们提醒称谈判仍处于初步阶段，细节可能会发生变化。

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, PIF, is expected to play a large role in the deal, two of the people said. PIF holds an indirect interest in xAI through its stake in Kingdom Holdings Company, which has invested $800mn in xAI.
两位人士表示，沙特阿拉伯主权财富基金 PIF 预计将在此次交易中发挥重要作用。PIF 通过其在 Kingdom Holdings Company 的股份间接持有 xAI 的权益，Kingdom Holdings 已向 xAI 投资了 8 亿美元。

xAI did not respond to requests for comment. PIF declined to comment.
xAI 未回应置评请求。公共投资基金（PIF）拒绝发表评论。

xAI acquired X in March in an all-stock deal for $45bn. The transaction valued the combined company at $113bn. That would grow to about $245bn if the latest xAI fundraising is successful.
xAI 于三月以全股票交易方式收购了 X，交易金额为 450 亿美元。此次交易使合并后的公司估值达到 1130 亿美元。如果最新的 xAI 融资成功，估值将增长至约 2450 亿美元。

Another Musk company, SpaceX, has surged in value recently. The rocket and satellite group is preparing to sell about $1bn of its shares in a deal that would value it at $400bn, the Financial Times reported this week.
另一家马斯克的公司 SpaceX 最近价值飙升。据《金融时报》本周报道，这家火箭和卫星集团正准备出售约 10 亿美元的股份，此次交易将使其估值达到 4000 亿美元。

Musk’s companies — including Tesla and brain chip company Neuralink — initially benefited from the entrepreneur’s connections to US President Donald Trump following November’s election.
马斯克的公司——包括特斯拉和脑芯片公司 Neuralink——最初受益于这位企业家在 11 月大选后与美国总统唐纳德·特朗普的关系。

Musk was one of Trump’s biggest backers, spending more than $250mn on his campaign, but a public spat last month has led to concern about blowback on some of his businesses.
马斯克是特朗普最大的支持者之一，在其竞选活动中花费超过 2.5 亿美元，但上个月的一场公开争执引发了人们对他部分业务可能受到反弹的担忧。

The value of his private companies suggests investors are looking past the risks of Trump targeting Musk’s businesses. However, shares in Tesla have fallen nearly a fifth since the start of the year.
他私人公司的估值表明投资者正在忽视特朗普针对马斯克企业的风险。然而，特斯拉的股价自年初以来已下跌近五分之一。

xAI launched in 2023 shortly after OpenAI released its chatbot ChatGPT, which exploded in popularity. Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015 but he left in 2018, and has since been a vocal critic of the company and its chief executive Sam Altman. OpenAI was valued at $300bn as part of a fundraising earlier this year.
xAI 于 2023 年推出，紧随 OpenAI 发布其爆红的聊天机器人 ChatGPT 之后。马斯克是 2015 年 OpenAI 的联合创始人，但他于 2018 年离开，此后一直公开批评该公司及其首席执行官萨姆·奥特曼。OpenAI 今年早些时候的一轮融资中估值达到 3000 亿美元。

Additional reporting by Hannah Murphy
汉娜·墨菲补充报道