Fidelity just boosted the value of its stake in Elon Musk's xAI by 70%
NEWS | 16 December 2024
Elon Musk's xAI reportedly closed a $5 billion funding round last month at a $50 billion valuation. A Fidelity fund has boosted the value of its shares in xAI by 70%, according to filings. The fund also boosted the value of its shares in Musk-owned social media platform X by 32.4%. Fidelity increased the value of its shares in two Elon Musk-owned companies in October, social media platform X and startup xAI, according to filings. The financial giant, which invests in startups and large corporations through multiple mutual funds, has stakes in both companies via its Blue Chip Growth Fund. That fund valued its xAI shares at $75,062,706 at the end of October, according to filings released publicly at the end of November. The fund had 3,688,585 shares at the end of July, according to an annual filing from August, which means the shares are currently valued at $20.35 each. Last month, the fund valued its xAI shares at $44,152,362, or $11.96 each. That's a 70% jump from September to October. Representatives for Fidelity did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fidelity's October markup for OpenAI rival, xAI, foreshadowed what turned out to be a huge month for Musk, who was tapped as President-elect Donald Trump's government efficiency boss in early November. Later in the month, xAI closed a hotly anticipated $5 billion funding round reportedly from Qatar's sovereign-wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority, as well as VC firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, the Wall Street Journal reported. xAI is now valued at $50 billion, which is more than double the $24 billion valuation it received earlier this year after its $6 billion Series B funding round. The AI startup has made up significant ground on its rivals by using X as a source of third-party data, one of the main sources for training large language models . Fidelity also bumped up the value of its X shares to $5,530,358 in October, according to the November filing. The bump followed months of Fidelity lowering the value of its shares of X. The fund had 196,600 Class A shares of X at the end of July, according to an annual filing from August. That means the fund is currently valuing its shares of X at $28.13 a piece, which is a 32.4% jump from the previous month when the fund valued its X shares at $4,185,614, or $21.29 a pop. Previously, Fidelity's value of X shares had dropped more than 80% compared to two years ago, when Musk, in October 2022, purchased X for $44 billion. While critics initially said he 'overpaid' for the social media platform, it is starting to bear fruit — including supporting his AI ambitions and winning favor with Trump. At the time of the purchase, the Blue Chip Growth Fund invested $19.66 million, according to filings. Assuming the investment was made at X's $44 billion valuation, the fund last month estimated X's total value to be around $9.4 billion. For October, X's value is now estimated to be around $12.5 billion. Fidelity's value in OpenAI, meanwhile, remained unchanged from September to October. At least five Fidelity funds have a stake in the AI juggernaut, and Fidelity participated in OpenAI's $6.6 billion funding round to the tune of at least $100 million. Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Author: Samantha Stokes.
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