State-backed Oman Investment Authority (OIA) reportedly acquired an undisclosed stake in Elon Musk’s (pictured) AI company xAI, a few months after it emerged the billionaire was seeking new investors.

The Middle Eastern country’s official news agency revealed the investment, reporting it is part of OIA’s ongoing efforts to diversify its international portfolio and support growth across various sectors.

Indeed, Wall Street Journal reported in October that Musk was pursuing talks with investors for a new round of funding that would value the company at $40 billion, after previously raising $6 billion.

OIA apparently pointed to two significant milestones achieved by xAI, including the establishment of a major data centre in the US and the rollout of its AI chatbot Grok and Grok-2

These developments are expected to further strengthen the company’s market position and boost the returns on OIA’s investment, the news agency reported.

Commenting on the move, Musk said the partnership between Oman and the Gulf countries with xAI “is an excellent idea”.

“These investments will bear fruit as we work together to build a super intelligent AI capable of solving numerous problems.” He added the company was nearing completion of training the Grok-3 model, “which we believe will be the smartest AI model in the world”.

OIA and Musk already have a relationship, with the authority a shareholder in the billionaire’s aerospace company SpaceX.