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In a blockbuster deal, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has secured up to $20 billion in funding from investors including Nvidia, Valor Equity Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority, as it moves forward with ambitious plans to scale its AI infrastructure and reach users worldwide.

The company has not revealed how much each investor put in, nor how the funding is split between debt and equity. However, xAI said the round also saw participation from Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research, MGX, Baron Capital Group and Cisco Systems Inc.’s investment arm.

Foreign media reports suggest xAI was aiming to raise about $7.5 billion through equity and up to $12.5 billion via debt, routed through a special purpose vehicle to purchase Nvidia processors. These chips would then be rented out over a five-year period, allowing investors to recover their money. The approach highlights how central Nvidia’s hardware is to xAI’s expansion strategy.

The startup said the new funding will help speed up infrastructure development, fast-track the rollout of AI products to billions of users, and support research tied to its mission of “understanding the universe.”

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xAI had already raised close to $10 billion in equity and debt in 2025 and is reportedly burning around $1 billion every month. Musk has earlier confirmed that the company is scaling up its data-centre capacity in Memphis to nearly 2 gigawatts.

For context, a single gigawatt can power roughly 7,50,000 homes in the US. Musk has also spoken openly about building the world’s largest data centre for AI training, saying Colossus 2 could eventually run on 5,50,000 Nvidia chips, costing tens of billions of dollars.

Also Read: Death of money, optional college, and the only scarce commodity…: How Elon Musk envisions AI-driven future

While the funding news is a boost for xAI, scrutiny around its products is intensifying. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has taken action against X Corp for failing to stop the spread of obscene, nude and indecent content on its platform.

The government has directed X Corp to submit an action taken report (ATR) “towards immediate compliance for prevention of hosting, generation, publication or transmission, sharing or uploading of obscene, nude, indecent and explicit content through the misuse of Al-based services like ‘Grok’ and xAl’s other services.” X Corp has said it continues to act against illegal content, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), and is working with local authorities and law enforcement agencies.