xAI logo is seen in this illustration taken, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
(Reuters) -Billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday said on X the CNBC report of his artificial intelligence startup xAI raising $15 billion in a series E funding round was "false."
The latest CNBC report said the capital raise added another $5 billion to the $10 billion round that valued xAI at $200 billion.
Musk had also denied the news channel's previous report, which said the firm was raising $10 billion.
XAI, in what seemed like an automated reply, said "Legacy Media Lies" in response to a Reuters request for comment on the latest fundraise.
The AI startup has been ramping up its data center capacity to train more advanced models, as it looks to compete more effectively with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude.
A lot of the money raised will fund graphics processing units that underpin large language models, CNBC reported earlier in the day.
Investor enthusiasm in artificial intelligence firms has remained strong even as fears of an AI bubble emerge due to sky-high valuations and massive spending plans.
XAI, which was launched in July 2023 as an alternative to OpenAI's ChatGPT, is also investing heavily to expand its own infrastructure by buying property in Memphis, Tennessee, to build out its planned Colossus supercomputer.
Musk did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
