In a strategic move to diversify its international investments, the Oman Investment Authority (OIA) has acquired a stake in xAI, a leading American artificial intelligence company owned by Elon Musk.
This acquisition aligns with OIA’s broader commitment to invest in high-growth sectors, particularly those driving technological advancements.
xAI has been making significant strides in the AI landscape. The company recently achieved two major milestones: the establishment of a state-of-the-art data center in the U.S. and the launch of its enhanced AI platform, Grok-2. These developments are expected to further solidify xAI’s position in the competitive AI market.
Oman’s Vision 2040 and Technological Investments
Abdulsalam Mohammed Al Murshidi, Chairman of Oman Investment Authority, highlighted the significance of the investment, saying that it supports Oman’s Vision 2040, enabling the Sultanate to adopt world-class technologies that drive future progress. The move reflects OIA’s focus on supporting innovations that have the potential to revolutionize industries and contribute to long-term economic growth.
The OIA’s partnership with Musk is not limited to xAI. The authority is also a shareholder in SpaceX, Musk’s revolutionary aerospace company. SpaceX has seen remarkable success, with OIA achieving an internal rate of return exceeding 37% on its investment. This success is attributed to SpaceX’s rapid global expansion, including the deployment of its Starlink satellite communication system across numerous countries.
As OIA continues to strengthen its position in advanced technologies, its investments in both xAI and SpaceX demonstrate a strategic commitment to shaping the future of global industries, aligning with Oman’s ambitious vision for the future.
Key Highlights
- Oman Investment Authority (OIA) acquires a stake in xAI, an AI company founded by Elon Musk.
- xAI has recently launched Grok-2 and established a major data center in the U.S.
- The investment supports Oman’s Vision 2040 goals, focusing on advanced technologies.
- Musk’s xAI aims to build the world’s most intelligent AI system, Grok-3.
xAI’s ambition to lead the AI revolution
Elon Musk called the collaboration between Oman, the Gulf countries, and xAI “an excellent idea.” He expressed hopes that these investments “will bear fruit as we work together to build a superintelligent AI capable of solving numerous problems.” He added the company is nearing the completion of training the Grok 3 model, which they believe will be the “smartest AI model in the world.”
Founded by Musk, xAI is striving to become a frontrunner in the AI field, offering cutting-edge tools designed to process and analyze real-time data. The platform’s unique capabilities—such as optimizing large AI models and managing visual data—give it a significant edge over competing systems.
Elon Musk revealed that xAI has been training Grok-3, an AI model designed to rival or even surpass GPT-5, the highly anticipated language model from OpenAI. Grok-3 requires a massive cluster of 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs to power its development, highlighting the immense computational resources needed to push the boundaries of AI.
xAI raised $6 billion in funding in December 2024, with participation from a range of high-profile investors including A16Z, Blackrock, Fidelity Management, Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital, as well as NVIDIA, and AMD. This latest round of funding could value xAI at between $35 billion and $40 billion, up from $24 billion earlier this year.
As part of its growth strategy, xAI has launched an enhanced version of its AI platform, Grok-2, now available for free to all users on X (Twitter). The new version promises faster performance, sharper results, and improved multilingual capabilities.
