Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has launched Grok-3, the latest version of its chatbot, as it seeks to challenge leading AI firms, including China’s DeepSeek, Microsoft-backed OpenAI, and Google parent Alphabet.
The debut of Grok-3 comes at a pivotal moment in the AI race, just days after DeepSeek released its powerful open-source model. Musk has been aggressively expanding xAI’s influence, positioning the company as a major competitor in the industry.
The new chatbot is being made available immediately to Premium+ subscribers on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. Additionally, xAI is introducing a new subscription tier, SuperGrok, for users accessing the chatbot via its mobile app and website, Grok.com.
“Grok-3 across the board is in a league of its own,” Musk said during a livestream on Monday, joined by three xAI engineers. He claimed the model significantly outperforms its predecessor, Grok-2.
Musk also reaffirmed xAI’s commitment to open-source AI, stating that earlier versions of Grok would be publicly released once Grok-3 reaches full maturity, a milestone expected in the coming months.
The latest model introduces a smart search engine called DeepSearch, which xAI describes as a reasoning-based chatbot capable of explaining its thought process when responding to user queries. The tool, demonstrated during the livestream, is designed for research, brainstorming, and data analysis.
Meanwhile, xAI is ramping up its data center capacity to support the development of more advanced AI models. Reports suggest the startup is in discussions to raise up to $10 billion in funding, potentially valuing the company at around $75 billion.
Last week, Musk led a consortium of investors in a $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI’s nonprofit assets, an offer that was rejected by the ChatGPT maker.
