Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, announced the establishment of a new artificial intelligence (AI) company called "xAI" last week, according to US media reports.

Musk revealed the news on his social media platform Twitter, stating that its purpose will be “to understand the universe.” Musk registered the firm in March, and it was incorporated in Nevada, according to a state filing.

Musk will serve as the CEO of xAI, in addition to his current positions at Tesla and SpaceX, as well as being the owner of the social platform Twitter.

Regarding the origin of the company’s name, there had been media reports about Musk's grandiose idea of a super app called “X”. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk has a history of using the letter "X". One of his children is called "X", one of his early creations, an online banking platform that later became PayPal, was originally called X.com, and Twitter recently informed its business users that it is now conducting business as X Corp.

Musk has expressed concerns about the safety of AI on several occasions, stating that AI has "the potential of civilization destruction". As for his new company, Musk stated that he will create a safer AI that is “maximally curious” and tries to understand “the true nature of the universe.” The founding team of xAI includes researchers from OpenAI (the parent company of ChatGPT), Google’s DeepMind, Tesla, and the University of Toronto. Musk expressed his intention to challenge OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.

Musk is one of the co-founders of OpenAI but left the company’s board in 2018 after a power struggle. He has publicly expressed discomfort with the profit-focused development model of OpenAI led by CEO Sam Altman.