Elon Musk Has an Optimistic Message for xAI Staff, According to a Leaked Meeting
Musk framed the next two to three years as a make-or-break window that will determine long-term winners in the AI race.
Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk, 54, is the world’s richest person with a net worth of $632 billion.
- At a recent all-hands meeting, Musk told xAI staff that if the company survived the next two to three years, it had a shot of becoming the AI market leader.
- Musk suggested that xAI might reach artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that matches or exceeds human intelligence, as soon as 2026.
Elon Musk, 54, has a simple message for staff at xAI, the artificial intelligence startup he founded in 2023: If we can survive the next two to three years, we can win over our competitors and become the market leader in the AI race.
At an all-hands meeting at xAI’s San Francisco headquarters last week, Musk delivered a notably optimistic message about the company’s future to xAI staff, according to Business Insider. He framed the next two to three years as a make-or-break window in which rapid scaling of computing and data resources will determine the long-term winners in the AI race.
A central part of his optimism is the company’s technical development and its ambitions around artificial general intelligence (AGI) or systems that match or exceed human capabilities. Musk suggested that xAI might reach AGI as soon as 2026, tying that prediction to the company’s upcoming Grok 5 AI model, which has a release date of early 2026.
Musk also told staff that xAI has an advantage over other AI companies because it can quickly raise money. The startup can tap into $20 billion to $30 billion in funding per year. As of last month, xAI was in advanced talks to raise $15 billion in its latest funding round.
xAI could also take advantage of its closeness to Musk’s other companies. For example, Tesla, the electric vehicle company that Musk also runs, incorporated Grok into its cars earlier this year. The move showed how Musk’s ties to various firms could accelerate xAI’s product deployment.
xAI’s rapid data center expansion, a project internally called “Colossus,” is an additional key strategic advantage, according to Musk. Earlier this year, xAI said it had about 200,000 GPUs, or AI chips. The startup is planning to scale to roughly one million GPUs for its data centers.
Related: Elon Musk, Richest Person in the World, Claims Technology Will Make Money ‘Irrelevant’
The overall atmosphere at the all-hands meeting was “peppy,” an insider told BI. Workers noted that Musk appeared content with xAI’s progress. He talked about the possibility of building data centers in space and his plans to colonize Mars. He also spoke about his vision of allowing Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot to run space-based data centers. Musk has yet to bring the Optimus robots to market. He has previously said that the robots could be priced between $20,000 and $30,000 once they reach full-scale production.
Also at the all-hands meeting, xAI leaders showcased updates to the company’s products. Enhancements included improved listening capabilities for Grok Voice, an app specifically designed for Tesla owners.
Musk is the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $632 billion at the time of writing.
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Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk, 54, is the world’s richest person with a net worth of $632 billion.
- At a recent all-hands meeting, Musk told xAI staff that if the company survived the next two to three years, it had a shot of becoming the AI market leader.
- Musk suggested that xAI might reach artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that matches or exceeds human intelligence, as soon as 2026.
Elon Musk, 54, has a simple message for staff at xAI, the artificial intelligence startup he founded in 2023: If we can survive the next two to three years, we can win over our competitors and become the market leader in the AI race.
At an all-hands meeting at xAI’s San Francisco headquarters last week, Musk delivered a notably optimistic message about the company’s future to xAI staff, according to Business Insider. He framed the next two to three years as a make-or-break window in which rapid scaling of computing and data resources will determine the long-term winners in the AI race.
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