Elon Musk's AI endeavor, xAI, is on the brink of attaining an $18 billion valuation after its latest round of funding, Bloomberg reports. Musk initiated xAI in July 2023, aiming to rival OpenAI's market presence, particularly propelled by the success of its viral ChatGPT chatbot.

In late April, reports emerged of xAI nearing a deal to secure $6 billion in funding, with notable participants like Sequoia Capital. The startup introduced its generative AI chatbot, Grok, to paying subscribers on the X social media network in December.

In March, xAI unveiled Grok-1.5, an upgraded version proficient in coding and mathematical tasks. Despite its recent funding, xAI faces a formidable challenge in surpassing OpenAI, which currently holds a staggering $80 billion valuation.

The AI landscape is witnessing significant investments in various startups. Perplexity, a search startup, secured a $63 million funding round, elevating its valuation to $1 billion. Atlan recently achieved a valuation of $750 million after raising $105 million. Additionally, Wayve, a British self-driving startup, received $1 billion in funding from Softbank, while Mistral and Aleph Alpha also secured substantial funding rounds.