Elon Musk’s xAI loses almost $8bn while laying out Optimus vision

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) venture xAI is facing significant financial losses as it aggressively invests in infrastructure, including AI systems designed to power humanoid robots such as Optimus.

According to Bloomberg, xAI recorded a net loss of $1.46 billion in the September quarter of 2025, up from about $1 billion in the first quarter. 

Over the first nine months of the year, the tech giant consumed approximately $7.8 billion in cash, underscoring the substantial costs associated with developing large-scale AI capabilities.

Much of the spending has gone toward constructing data centres, purchasing high-end computing hardware, and recruiting top engineers and researchers in the competitive generative AI market. 

It should be noted that heavy cash burn is common across the AI sector, where startups often invest billions upfront to keep pace with rapid technological advances.

Despite such major losses, xAI has continued to attract major investor interest. Earlier this week, the company announced it had raised around $20 billion in an expanded Series E funding round, exceeding its original $15 billion target. 

The fresh capital is expected to support the development of new AI models and further expansion of computing infrastructure.