'Donnamu Unni' Cathie Wood Invests in xAI Following OpenAI Investment

Acquisition of $60 Million Assets by Ark Venture Fund
About a Month After OpenAI Investment
"AI Foundation Market to Reach Trillions of Dollars Within 10 Years"

Ark Investment, led by Cathie Wood and known for its principle of investing in 'disruptive innovation companies,' has reportedly acquired shares in 'xAI' following its investment in OpenAI. The company anticipates that the AI foundation market will grow to trillions of dollars within the next decade.

According to Bloomberg on the 29th (local time), Ark Investment informed its investors via email that the Ark Venture Fund holds xAI shares accounting for 2% of the fund's assets. xAI is an artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Elon Musk in July last year. The Ark Venture Fund, launched in September 2022, is a venture capital (VC) fund managing assets worth $60 million.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Brett Winton, Chief Future Strategist at Ark Investment, said in an interview with Bloomberg, "xAI will demonstrate differentiated performance compared to other AI companies based on real-time data and the reach of X (formerly Twitter)." He added, "This prediction becomes even more certain considering Elon Musk's fanatical obsession with speed." He also stated, "AI foundation models will have a value of trillions of dollars within the next 10 years." Foundation models refer to versatile models developed and trained to be applied across various service fields.

Ark Investment has recently been aggressively investing, viewing AI as the starting point of a global technological revolution. Last month, it informed investors that "OpenAI's capabilities are at the forefront of the Cambrian explosion," and disclosed that it invested 4% of its fund holdings in OpenAI. It is also investing 5% in Anthropic, a competitor of OpenAI.

Meanwhile, xAI recently ignited the 'AI arms race' among tech companies again by announcing a $6 billion (approximately 8.2 trillion KRW) funding round. Its corporate valuation rose from $18 billion (approximately 24.5 trillion KRW) to $24 billion (approximately 32.7 trillion KRW). xAI attracted market attention by launching the chatbot service 'Grok' just four months after its establishment. Currently, xAI is known to be training its AI models by accessing posts on X, the social networking service owned by Musk.