Elon Musk’s xAI unveils Grok 3 model to take on ChatGPT and Google Gemini

Elon Musk’s xAI has unveiled its latest flagship AI model, Grok 3, which it claims is now better than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Mr Musk said Grok 3 is the “smartest AI on Earth”, and the company said it performed better in benchmark tests across science, maths and coding than ChatGPT, as well as Google’s Gemini, DeepSeek and Anthropic’s Claude.

In a livestream announcing the new model, the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla boss said Grok 3 has “more than 10 times” the compute power of Grok’s previous model.

The AI start-up confirmed Grok 3 will be made available to Premium+ subscribers on X – the social media platform also owned by Mr Musk – and will also be part of a new subscription called SuperGrok which will include access via the Grok mobile app and website.

Mr Musk’s claim about Grok being able to outperform ChatGPT – which have not been independently verified – further intensifies his rivalry with OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman.

Mr Musk has previously filed two lawsuits against OpenAI, claiming it has strayed from its founding principles of being a non-profit, and last week launched a bid to buy the company for 97.4 billion US dollars (£77.3 billion) – a bid that was rejected by Mr Altman and the OpenAI board.

He helped co-found OpenAI but left in 2018 and has become increasingly critical of the firm and its leadership.

Mr Altman dismissed the bid as a tactic to slow down a rival in the AI space, which remains centred on major firms based in the US, although DeepSeek’s sudden appearance last month as a cheaper, China-based alternative to the US giants has shaken that perception.

However, this has not yet appeared to slow the appetite to invest in AI firms – there are reports that OpenAI is in talks to raise around 40 billion dollars (£31.7 billion) in a new funding round which would push its valuation up to around 300 billion dollars (£238 billion).

Meanwhile, it has been reported that xAI is in talks to raise around 10 billion dollars (£8 billion), which would value the firm at around 75 billion dollars (£59.5 billion).