Elon Musk confirmed on X that xAI will open-source its Grok 3 AI model, fulfilling an August 2025 pledge amid regulatory scrutiny and a multibillion-dollar financing deal for computing infrastructure. He responded with a simple “Yes” to a direct query on the platform.
The confirmation arrived after xAI released its Grok-powered recommendation algorithm, which determines content in users’ X feeds, on GitHub in late January. This step made the algorithm publicly accessible for examination and use by developers worldwide. Musk initially pledged to open-source Grok 3 in August 2025, coinciding with xAI’s release of the older Grok 2.5 model on Hugging Face, a platform popular for sharing machine learning models. During that announcement, Musk specified that Grok 3 would follow “in about 6 months,” targeting a timeline around February 2026.
xAI adheres to a consistent strategy of open-sourcing previous-generation models once newer versions achieve stability. The company applied this approach with Grok 1 in 2024, releasing its weights and architecture to the public after advancing to subsequent iterations. Grok 3 itself launched in February 2025, trained on approximately 200,000 GPUs housed in xAI’s Memphis data center. Musk described the model as “an order of magnitude more capable” than Grok 2.5, highlighting substantial improvements in performance metrics such as reasoning, coding, and multimodal capabilities.
The model integrates deeply into X, powering various features like real-time responses and content generation. It positions xAI in direct competition with leading AI systems from OpenAI, such as GPT-4o, and Google’s Gemini series, matching or exceeding them in benchmarks for speed and accuracy on complex tasks.
This open-source commitment aligns with Apollo Global Management’s progress on a roughly $3.4 billion loan to purchase NVIDIA chips for lease to xAI, as reported by The Information and cited by Reuters. Valor Equity Partners, a long-term backer of Musk’s enterprises including SpaceX and Tesla, is facilitating the deal, which may finalize as early as this week. The transaction represents Apollo’s second significant investment in chip-leasing arrangements for xAI, succeeding a $3.5 billion loan completed in November.
Days earlier, Musk disclosed that SpaceX acquired xAI in a deal assigning the AI firm a $250 billion valuation and SpaceX a $1 trillion valuation. The acquisition integrates xAI’s technology more closely with SpaceX operations, potentially enhancing applications in satellite communications and autonomous systems.
xAI confronts escalating regulatory pressures. The European Commission prolonged data retention orders through 2026 under the Digital Services Act, mandating X to retain internal documents on its algorithms for potential audits. In the United States, attorneys general from 37 states initiated coordinated legal proceedings against xAI concerning content moderation practices. California regulators issued directives requiring xAI to rectify problems in its image-generation features, focusing on safeguards against misuse.
Through public releases of the recommendation algorithm and forthcoming Grok 3, xAI advances a transparency agenda in AI development. This differs from the proprietary models maintained by competitors like Anthropic and, previously, OpenAI.
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