Musk's xAI startup joins $30-bn Microsoft-BlackRock AI fund

MICROSOFT CORP., the biggest backer of Sam Altman's OpenAI, and BlackRock Inc., which has an executive on the artificial intelligence startup's board, are joining forces with one of its chief rivals.

- MARK BERGEN & ALEX DOOLER

Microsoft and BlackRock said Wednesday that Elon Musk's xAI is joining their effort to build $30 billion worth of data centers and other artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The AI chipmaker Nvidia, which was already named as a technical adviser to the group when it was announced last year, is also formally joining, according to a statement that didn't detail member commitments.

Microsoft, which has invested about $13 billion in OpenAI, has increasingly been developing AI outside of that partnership. The software giant has created in-house AI models that it believes can compete with OpenAI, Bloomberg reported this month. Musk, also a co-founder of OpenAI, has meanwhile publicly feuded with Altman over the company's efforts to shift to a for-profit structure.