Ahead of SpaceX IPO… Saudi state-backed firm makes 'big-ticket' investment in Musk’s xAI

Korea Economic Daily

Summary

Humain, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned AI company, said it invested $3 billion in Elon Musk’s xAI, becoming a major shareholder.
It said the stake was converted into SpaceX shares immediately after the xAI–SpaceX merger, enabling Humain to expect future gains.
It said SpaceX is expected to raise up to $50 billion through an IPO, potentially making it the largest initial public offering on record.

Participates with $3 billion in xAI’s $20 billion funding round

Investment made just ahead of merger… stake converted into SpaceX shares

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned artificial intelligence (AI) company Humain has invested $3 billion (about 4.35 trillion won) in Elon Musk’s AI company xAI.

According to the Financial Times (FT) on the 18th (local time), Humain said in a statement that it contributed $3 billion of the $20 billion raised by xAI in last month’s funding round, which took place just ahead of the merger between xAI and Musk’s space company SpaceX. With the investment, Humain became a major shareholder in xAI, and it added that its stake was later converted into SpaceX shares.

SpaceX is targeting an initial public offering (IPO) as early as June, and the investment is expected to deliver sizable returns for Humain. SpaceX is projected to raise up to $50 billion through the listing, which would make it the largest IPO on record.

Backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Humain was established last year under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The FT said, “This investment is part of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to diversify its economy and position itself as a global AI hub.” Previously, in November last year, Humain agreed to work with xAI to build a data center in Saudi Arabia with capacity of more than 500 megawatts (MW) and to adopt xAI’s AI chatbot Grok.

Reporter Lim Da-yeon allopen@hankyung.com