Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has announced a successful Series B funding round, raising an impressive $6 billion from prominent investors including Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. The substantial influx of capital marks a crucial milestone for xAI as it strives to compete with industry leaders like Sam Altman’s OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.

Musk took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share the news, hinting at more announcements to come in the following weeks. He also revealed xAI’s pre-money valuation of $18 billion, highlighting the company’s potential and investor confidence in its future prospects.

The funding round comes as the first official confirmation of xAI’s fundraising efforts, following Musk’s previous denials of reports from Bloomberg and the Financial Times regarding the company’s outreach to investors. The capital will be instrumental in establishing xAI as a formidable alternative to OpenAI, a company Musk co-founded before leaving its board in 2018.

Musk has expressed disappointment in OpenAI’s direction, particularly its partnership with Microsoft, which he believes contradicts the company’s original nonprofit mission. In February, he filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of violating its nonprofit status by partnering with Microsoft.

With the $6 billion in funding, xAI is well-positioned to pursue its ambitious goals, including building advanced infrastructure and accelerating research and development of future technologies.