XAI Moves Closer to Starting an Enterprise and Government Business

How Elon Musk’s xAI plans to make money is one of the big questions in the AI world right now. Musk hasn’t said much and even investors in the company don’t seem to know many details, given the vague statements they made when asked about it at our  Financing the AI Revolution conference last month. 

We have one answer: XAI plans to use data from government agencies to build AI models and applications that it could sell to government customers, said a person who was briefed on its strategy. This would be a new twist on the enterprise-focused AI efforts already underway from rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which make a large portion of their revenue from selling access to their models to businesses. 

Similar to those rivals, xAI also wants to double down on selling to enterprises. The model developer has been recruiting senior executives with experience overseeing and building AI applications being sold to enterprises, said the person briefed, a sign that it’s a high priority. XAI is also interested in a Palantir-esque business model, where its engineers will work closely with customers to build specialized AI software for them, the person briefed said.