AI lab, San Francisco
xAI
San Francisco · Founded July 2023
Quick read
xAI, an AI lab founded by Elon Musk in July 2023, is headquartered in San Francisco and operates as a division of SpaceX following an acquisition in early 2026. It builds the Grok family of large language models, owns the social network X, and runs Colossus — one of the largest AI supercomputers in the world. The company has raised $45 billion in total funding and claims roughly 600 million monthly active users across X and Grok.
Key facts
- Founded
- July 2023
- Founders
- Elon Musk, Igor Babuschkin, Ross Nordeen, Guodong Zhang, Zihang Dai
- Employees
- 5000-5400
- Sectors
- ai
- Website
- x.ai
Mission
Build AI systems that help humanity understand the universe.
Recent activity
- May 2025productxAI announced that Grok and X Premium subscribers can use Grok models inside OpenCode, giving developers access to the model powering Grok Build for high-speed codebase intelligence. x.com
- Feb 2026pressxAI signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense allowing the military to use Grok in classified systems. biography.wiki
- Feb 2026leadershipxAI became a subsidiary of SpaceX and was rebranded SpaceXAI. Musk held an all-staff meeting to announce the post-merger leadership lineup. Multiple co-founders and employees publicly announced departures in the immediate aftermath. en.wikipedia.org
- Jan 2026fundraisexAI closed a $20 billion Series E round, exceeding its $15 billion target. Funds are earmarked for infrastructure build-out, AI model development, and research — with Grok 5 training underway at the time of announcement. reuters.com
- Oct 2025productxAI launched Grokipedia, an AI-powered encyclopedia positioned as an alternative to Wikipedia, drawing on Grok's real-time knowledge base. artificial-intelligence-wiki.com
- Jul 2025leadershipxAI released Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy, with Heavy available through a separate SuperGrok Heavy subscription tier. CFO Mike Liberatore departed to join OpenAI the same month, roughly three months after joining from Airbnb and X. research.contrary.com
- Mar 2025investmentxAI acquired X Corp., making xAI the parent company of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Earlier that month, xAI also acquired Hotshot, a startup focused on AI-powered video generation. en.wikipedia.org
- Jun 2026productGrok models became natively available on Databricks Agent Bricks, announced at the Databricks 2026 Data + AI Summit on June 18. Databricks confirmed zero data retention for model partners including xAI. basenor.com
- Jun 2026pressBritish MP Jess Asato sued xAI after Grok users generated fake sexualized images of her, according to reports from June 3, 2026. tracxn.com
- May 2026pressThe U.S. Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) announced a pre-deployment model evaluation agreement with xAI, alongside Google DeepMind and Microsoft. CAISI sits under the Department of Commerce. cnbc.com
- Apr 2026investmentSpaceX acquired xAI in an all-stock deal announced April 17, 2026, completing a consolidation that had begun when xAI absorbed X Corp in March 2025. The combined entity now operates as SpaceXAI. x.ai
- Mar 2026investmentxAI's most recent deal per PitchBook was a Buyout/LBO with Aligned Data Centers, closed March 26, 2026. pitchbook.com
Key people
Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.
- Elon Musk · CEO & Founder
- Eric Zelikman · Researcher
- Igor Babuschkin · Co-founder
- Tony Wu · Co-founder
- Jimmy Ba · Co-founder
- Christian Szegedy · Co-founder
- Greg Yang · Co-founder
Sources
- xAI News & Announcements
- xAI raises $20B Series E — TechCrunch
- xAI raises $20B from Nvidia, Cisco, Fidelity — CNBC
- SpaceXAI — Wikipedia
- Microsoft, Google, xAI give US access to AI models — Al Jazeera
- xAI Company Profile — Tracxn
- Musk reopens hiring books after co-founder exodus — Business Insider
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqjq11202ro
- https://www.fintechweekly.com/magazine/articles/xai-acquires-x-twitter-merger-elon-musk-ai
- https://x.com/xai
- https://www.basenor.com/blogs/news/xai-grok-lands-on-databricks-at-the-2026-data-ai-summit
- https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/05/ai-oversight-trump-google-microsoft-xai.html
- https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/533035-45
- https://sacra.com/c/xai/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/technology/xai-elon-musk-funding.html
- https://x.com/xai?lang=en
- https://biography.wiki/a/Elon_Musk
- https://www.reuters.com/business/musks-xai-raises-20-billion-upsized-series-e-funding-round-2026-01-06/
- https://artificial-intelligence-wiki.com/ai-research/ai-news-and-trends/xai-company-profile/
- https://research.contrary.com/company/xai
Other companies in United States
Frequently asked
What is xAI?+
xAI, an AI lab founded by Elon Musk in July 2023, is headquartered in San Francisco and operates as a division of SpaceX following an acquisition in early 2026. It builds the Grok family of large language models, owns the social network X, and runs Colossus — one of the largest AI supercomputers in the world.
Where is xAI headquartered?+
xAI is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
When was xAI founded?+
xAI was founded in July 2023 by Elon Musk, Igor Babuschkin, Ross Nordeen, Guodong Zhang, Zihang Dai.
What sectors does xAI operate in?+
xAI focuses on ai. They primarily operate in these sectors.
Who is the CEO of xAI?+
Elon Musk is the CEO of xAI.
How do I prepare for a meeting with xAI?+
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Try Brief →Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources. Last updated August 14, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.
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