Elon Musk just deepened his rivalry with Sam Altman

Elon Musk’s xAI reportedly plans to launch a chatbot app next month.

Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly planning an app that could expand its chatbot’s reach to a much wider audience and take on ChatGPT.

xAI could release the chatbot app as soon as December, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from B-17.

The app, if it materializes, would be another sign that xAI and Musk are trying to take on ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Musk co-founded OpenAI but left the company in 2018. He has sued OpenAI and cofounder and CEO Sam Altman twice, most recently alleging he was “deceived” into confounding the company.

Musk founded xAI last year. Since then, the company has provided services to his other ventures, such as AI customer support for Starlink, and Grok, a chatbot only available to paid subscribers of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter that Musk acquired in 2022. A chatbot app would be its first product offered directly to consumers.

xAI’s valuation has hit $50 billion, the Journal reported earlier this month. The artificial intelligence startup is now worth more than the $44 billion that Musk paid to acquire X.

Investors who backed Musk’s acquisition of Twitter have registered losses on paper since the deal. On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that Musk gave a quarter of xAI’s shares to those investors, a move that could make up for those losses.

xAI’s valuation is still smaller than that of OpenAI, which was last valued at $157 billion in its latest funding round in October. It also generates less revenue. xAI is “on pace to surpass $100 million annually,” the Journal reported on Wednesday. OpenAI, meanwhile, expects revenue of $3.7 billion in 2024, the Journal reported earlier.