Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has announced the formation of a new artificial intelligence (AI) company called X.AI Corp. The company was incorporated on March 9th, 2023, and Musk is listed as its sole director. Musk’s family office director, Jared Birchall, serves as the company’s secretary. The move is unexpected, as Musk co-signed a letter just a few weeks ago, along with over 1,800 others, demanding a six-month pause in AI research.

Musk has reportedly begun assembling a team of researchers and engineers to work on the new AI project. The Financial Times reports that Musk is in talks with investors about the venture and has sought funding from SpaceX and Tesla investors to get the company started. AI has become a hot market in recent years, with tech giants like Microsoft investing up to $10 billion in OpenAI, and other companies like Google and Amazon also entering the space.

There is speculation that Musk intends to establish a competitor to OpenAI, an AI group that he helped establish in 2015, but left the board in 2018. In recent months, OpenAI has become a recognizable name in the industry, and is partially responsible for Microsoft and Google’s current push to integrate AI tools more deeply into many of their products.

X.AI, a privately held company, has authorized the sale of 100 million shares. Moreover, discussions are underway between Musk and investors from his other companies, Tesla and SpaceX, to finance the project. Given Musk’s substantial financial resources and deep expertise in the field, X.AI has the potential to establish itself as a frontrunner in the rapidly evolving generative AI market.

The new AI company will compete with the likes of OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Musk’s portfolio of companies includes Twitter, Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. Recently, Musk changed the official name of Twitter to X Corp as part of his effort to create an “everything app.” The emergence of X.AI is an exciting development in the AI industry, and many will be watching closely to see how the company performs.