摘要：AI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thurs

AI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
根据周四提交给美国证券交易委员会的一份文件，埃隆·马斯克 （Elon Musk） 的人工智能公司 xAI 已筹集 60 亿美元。

Investors gave a minimum of $77,593, per the filing (97 participated, but the document doesn’t reveal their identities). xAI later 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.
根据文件，投资者至少捐赠了 77,593 美元（97 人参与，但该文件没有透露他们的身份）。xAI 后来宣布（证实了一些早期的报道）Andreessen Horowitz、Blackrock、Fidelity、Kingdom Holdings、Lightspeed、MGX、摩根士丹利、OIA、QIA、红杉资本、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 xAI raised this spring. CNBC reported in November that xAI was aiming for a $50 billion valuation — double its valuation of six months prior.
这笔新现金使 xAI 的总融资额达到 120 亿美元，加上 xAI 今年春天筹集的 60 亿美元。CNBC 在 11 月报道称，xAI 的目标是 500 亿美元的估值——是六个月前估值的两倍。

According to the Financial Times, only investors who’d backed xAI in its previous fundraising round were permitted to participate in this one. Reportedly, investors who helped finance Musk’s Twitter acquisition were given access to up to 25% of xAI’s shares.
据《金融时报》报道，只有在上一轮融资中支持 xAI 的投资者才能参与本轮融资。据报道，帮助马斯克收购 Twitter 的投资者获得了高达 25% 的 xAI 股票。

Musk formed xAI last year. Soon after, the company released Grok, a flagship generative AI model that now powers a number of features on X, including a chatbot accessible to X Premium subscribers and free users in some regions.
马斯克去年成立了 xAI。不久之后，该公司发布了 Grok，这是一款旗舰生成式 AI 模型，现在为 X 上的许多功能提供支持，包括 X Premium 订阅者和某些地区免费用户可访问的聊天机器人。

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 from ChatGPT.
Grok 具有马斯克所说的“叛逆倾向”——愿意回答“大多数其他 AI 系统拒绝的尖锐问题”。例如，被告知粗俗时，Grok 会很乐意服从，喷出你不会从 ChatGPT 中听到的亵渎和丰富多彩的语言。

Musk has derided ChatGPT and other AI systems for being too “woke” and “politically correct,” despite Grok’s own unwillingness to cross certain boundaries and hedge on political subjects. He’s also referred to Grok as “maximally truth-seeking” and less biased than competing models, although there’s evidence to suggest that Grok leans to the left.
马斯克嘲笑 ChatGPT 和其他人工智能系统过于“清醒”和“正确”，尽管 Grok 自己不愿意跨越某些界限并在某些话题上对冲。他还称 Grok 是“最大限度地寻求真理”，并且比竞争对手的模型更少偏见，尽管有证据表明 Grok 倾向于保守。

Over the past year, Grok has become increasingly ingrained in X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. At launch, Grok was only available to X users — and developers skilled enough to get the “open source” edition up and running.
在过去的一年里，Grok 在 X（前身为 Twitter）社交网络中越来越根深蒂固。在发布时，Grok 仅提供给 X 用户，以及足够熟练以启动和运行“开源”版本的开发人员。

Thanks to an integration with 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).
由于与开放图像生成器 Flux 的集成，Grok 可以在 X 上生成图像（没有护栏，这是有争议的）。该模型还可以分析图像，并总结新闻和趋势事件（不完美，请注意）。

Reports indicate that Grok may handle even more X functions in the future, from enhancing X’s search capabilities and account bios to helping with post analytics and reply settings.
报告表明，Grok 将来可能会处理更多的 X 功能，从增强 X 的搜索功能和帐户 bios 到帮助进行帖子分析和回复设置。

xAI is sprinting to catch up to formidable competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic in the generative AI race. The company launched an 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 standalone consumer app similar to OpenAI’s in December.
xAI 正在冲刺，以在生成式 AI 竞赛中赶上 OpenAI 和 Anthropic 等强大的竞争对手。该公司于 10 月推出了一个 API，允许客户将 Grok 构建到第三方应用程序、平台和服务中。据《华尔街日报》报道，xAI 正准备在 12 月发布一款类似于 OpenAI 的独立消费者应用程序。

Musk asserts that it hasn’t been a fair fight.
马斯克断言，这并不是一场公平的战斗。

In a lawsuit filed 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 investors not 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.”
在针对 OpenAI 和 OpenAI 的亲密合作者 Microsoft 提起的诉讼中，马斯克的律师指责 OpenAI 通过“从投资者那里获得不为其提供资金的承诺”来“积极试图消除”像 xAI 这样的竞争对手。马斯克的律师表示，OpenAI 还不公平地受益于 Microsoft 的基础设施和专业知识，律师称之为 “事实上的合并”。

Yet Musk often says that X’s data gives xAI a leg up compared to rivals. Last month, X changed its privacy policy to allow third parties, including xAI, to train models on X posts.
然而，马斯克经常表示，与竞争对手相比，X 的数据让 xAI 更胜一筹。上个月，X 更改了其隐私政策，允许包括 xAI 在内的第三方在 X 帖子上训练模型。

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，马斯克是 OpenAI 的最初创始人之一，在对公司发展方向存在分歧后，他于 2018 年离开了公司。他在之前的诉讼中辩称，OpenAI 从他的早期参与中获利，但违背了其向所有人提供其人工智能研究成果的非营利承诺。

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 is said to be in talks with Tesla to provide R&D in exchange for some of the carmaker’s revenue.
xAI 概述了一个愿景，根据该愿景，其模型将使用来自马斯克旗下多家公司（包括特斯拉和 SpaceX）的数据进行训练，然后其模型可以改进这些公司的技术。据《华尔街日报》报道，它已经为SpaceX的Starlink互联网服务提供了客户支持功能，而且据说这家初创公司正在与特斯拉进行谈判，以提供研发以换取汽车制造商的部分收入。

Tesla shareholders, for one, object to these plans. Several have sued Musk over his decision to start xAI, arguing that Musk has diverted both talent and resources from Tesla to what’s essentially a competing venture.
特斯拉股东就反对这些计划。一些人就马斯克创办 xAI 的决定起诉马斯克，认为马斯克将特斯拉的人才和资源转移到了本质上是一个竞争企业。

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 is reportedly on pace to generate $1 billion in revenue this year, and OpenAI is targeting $4 billion by the end of 2024.
尽管如此，这些交易以及 xAI 面向开发人员和消费者的产品已将 xAI 的收入推高到每年 1 亿美元左右。相比之下，据报道，Anthropic 今年的收入有望达到 10 亿美元，而 OpenAI 的目标是到 2024 年底达到 40 亿美元。

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.)
马斯克今年夏天表示，xAI 正在其孟菲斯数据中心训练下一代 Grok 模型，该数据中心显然在短短 122 天内建成，目前部分由便携式柴油发电机供电。该公司希望明年升级包含 100,000 个 Nvidia GPU 的服务器场;xAI 在其新闻稿中表示，它计划将这一数字翻倍。（由于 GPU 能够并行执行许多计算，因此是训练和运行模型的首选芯片。

In November, xAI won approval from 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 and worsen the area’s air quality.
11 月，xAI 获得了孟菲斯地区电力局的批准，新增 150MW 电力，足以为大约 100,000 户家庭供电。为了赢得该机构的支持，xAI 承诺提高该市的饮用水质量，并为孟菲斯电网提供特斯拉制造的打折电池。但一些居民批评此举，认为这会给电网带来压力，并恶化该地区的空气质量。

Tesla is also expected to use the upgraded data center to improve its autonomous driving technologies.
预计特斯拉还将使用升级后的数据中心来改进其自动驾驶技术。

xAI has expanded quite rapidly from an operations standpoint in the year since its founding, growing from just a dozen employees in March 2023 to over 100 today. In October, the startup moved into OpenAI’s old corporate offices in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood.
自成立以来，从运营的角度来看，xAI 的扩张速度相当迅速，从 2023 年 3 月的十几名员工增长到今天的 100 多名员工。10 月，这家初创公司搬进了 OpenAI 位于旧金山 Mission 社区的旧公司办公室。

xAI has reportedly told investors it plans to raise more money next year.
据报道，xAI 已告诉投资者，它计划明年筹集更多资金。

It won’t be the only AI lab raising immense cash. Anthropic recently secured $4 billion from Amazon, bringing its total raised to $13.7 billion, while OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in October to grow its war chest to $17.9 billion.
它不会是唯一一个筹集巨额现金的人工智能实验室。Anthropic 最近从亚马逊获得了 40 亿美元，使其融资总额达到 137 亿美元，而 OpenAI 在 10 月份筹集了 66 亿美元，将其资金增加到 179 亿美元。

Megadeals like OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s drove AI venture capital activity to $31.1 billion across over 2,000 deals in Q3 2024, per PitchBook data.
根据 PitchBook 的数据，OpenAI 和 Anthropic 等大型交易在 2024 年第三季度的 2000 多笔交易中将 AI 风险投资活动推高至 311 亿美元。

来源：亲爱的数据一点号