Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI said on Thursday it has raised around $6 billion in equity financing as it races to compete with other AI firms.

The funding comes at a time xAI is looking to increase its footprint in the artificial intelligence industry by expanding its Memphis, Tennessee, supercomputer to house at least one million graphics processing units.

Musk, who launched xAI last year, expanded his lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI last month saying OpenAI illegally sought to monopolize the market for generative artificial intelligence and sideline competitors.

CNBC reported last month that xAI was raising $6 billion with a post-raise valuation seen at more than $50 billion.

In October, OpenAI closed a $6.6 billion funding round which valued it at $157 billion.