Money Talk: A New AI Coach Is Paying a Lot to Learn Finance

Elon Musk’s new venture, xAI, is looking for people who know money to help train its chatbot, Grok. The company wants real bankers and traders to act as tutors so the AI can understand how financial decisions are made. In its job ads, xAI asks for experts in investment banking, portfolio management, credit analysis and trading. These professionals will work on data annotation teams to feed Grok with the right information. One of the positions is a “Finance AI Tutor. ” The role requires at least a master’s degree in finance and offers up to $100 an hour, depending on experience. The job description says the tutor will teach Grok how people think about modeling and investing. xAI is also recruiting specialists in cryptocurrency to explain that asset class to the bot. The company wants Grok to handle everything from traditional stocks to digital coins. Other big AI firms are also moving into finance. OpenAI and Anthropic have launched tools that help analysts write investment memos faster. Recently, OpenAI let users run ChatGPT inside Excel and Google Sheets to analyze financial models.These developments worry older software companies like Salesforce and ServiceNow, which fear their products might become outdated. Musk started xAI in 2023 with the goal of building AI that “advances human comprehension and capabilities. ” Since then, the startup has raised more than $42 billion, including a $20 billion Series E round in January. Last month, xAI merged with Musk’s SpaceX, creating the world’s most valuable private company at $1. 25 trillion in combined worth. Despite the huge funding, xAI still lags behind competitors when it comes to business clients. Most of its revenue comes from partnerships with Musk’s other companies, such as Tesla and SpaceX. The company has had a rocky start: several staff members left, including cofounders. Musk recently posted on X that he is rebuilding xAI “from the foundations up, ” just as he did with Tesla. He also said he is re‑examining rejected applications, hoping to give talented candidates a second chance.