AI Funding

Elon Musk aims to merge SpaceX with xAI, creating “orbital data centers” and securing capital for xAI’s generative AI ambitions. This move leverages SpaceX’s space capabilities and potential IPO, with Starlink’s expansion providing crucial launch capacity. The merger capitalizes on strong investor interest in AI and a favorable regulatory environment, streamlining funding for xAI’s significant operational costs and past losses. This integration follows Musk’s pattern of consolidating his ventures and intermingling resources.

Moonshot AI, an Alibaba-backed startup, is reportedly nearing a funding round that values it at $4.8 billion, up from $4.3 billion just weeks prior. This surge reflects strong investor interest in Chinese AI ventures like its Kimi chatbot, which has seen rapid adoption. The market vacuum left by unavailable U.S. AI platforms, coupled with Beijing’s regulations and U.S. tech restrictions, has fueled growth for local companies. Competitors Zhipu and MiniMax have already achieved significant market caps post-IPO, further boosting confidence in emerging players like Moonshot AI.

.Mistral AI unveiled a new suite of models, including a large‑scale, open‑weight multilingual multimodal model (Mistral 3) aimed at agentic tasks and positioned against GPT‑4‑Turbo and Gemini‑1.5, and a lightweight edge model (Ministral 3) that runs on a single GPU for robotics, drones and on‑device translation. Backed by a €1.7 billion funding round—led by ASML, Nvidia, Microsoft and Andreessen Horowitz—the French startup, now valued at €11.7 billion, has secured enterprise deals with HSBC and other sectors, pursuing a dual strategy of high‑performance research and efficient edge AI.

Reports suggest xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup, is in talks to raise $10 billion, potentially valuing the company at $200 billion, amidst a competitive AI landscape with soaring valuations for OpenAI and Anthropic. However, Musk has denied these reports as “fake news,” disputing the immediate capital raise. xAI’s Grok chatbot has faced controversy, trailing behind competitors in capabilities. xAI merged with X in an all-stock transaction and is investing heavily in AI infrastructure, including acquiring 1 million AI chips and building a large AI computer cluster in Memphis. Musk opposes a merger between xAI and Tesla.

VERSES AI Inc. (OTCQB: VRSSD) priced a public offering of 1,007,764 units at US$6.946 each, aiming for gross proceeds of approximately $7 million. Each unit includes one Class A subordinate voting share and one-half warrant. Full warrants are exercisable at US$8.409 per share for 36 months. Proceeds will support the company’s balance sheet, research & development initiatives, and operational needs. The offering is led by agents A.G.P. Canada Investments ULC and U.S. affiliate A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners.