Musk is raising $6B for AI startup. Also, is TikTok dodging Apple’s commissions?

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2024-05-06 08:00:08

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Musk’s 10-month-old baby, xAI, is closing in on a whoppin’ $6 billion funding round. The social network X, née Twitter — also part of Elon’s tech family — is already a shareholder. The deal was initially supposed to raise just $3 billion, but then everybody wanted in and the price tag bumped. Investors include Musk’s BFFs from Sequoia Capital, Future Ventures and some other chums who may also be joining this AI party — it’s all very Mean Girls “You can’t sit with us” at this point. The thing that really frustrates me, though, is how smug Musk probably is about all of this. It’s fine, I’m just bitter that none of my startups ever raised $6 million — never mind three orders of magnitude more.

Sure, it may be on the eve of getting banished from the U.S. altogether (although, I hasten to add, the previous administration tried that, too, and TikTok’s still here, going strong), but TikTok may be sneaky in more ways than one. Word on the street (or should we say web?) is that TikTok is playing a bit of hide-and-seek with Apple. Instead of giving Apple its 30% cut for in-app purchases, it appears they’re trying to guide users into buying their digital tipping coins directly from their website. But shh … it’s a secret! The feature is apparently only visible to certain users (lookin’ at you, high spenders). Will Apple give them the boot like they did Fortnite? Only time will tell.