Aug 28 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence

startup, xAI, on Thursday released a new "speedy and economical"

agentic coding model, marking its entry into a key focus area

for AI companies.

An agentic coding tool is an AI-powered software application

that can autonomously perform coding-related tasks.

XAI's model, called grok-code-fast-1, would be available for

free for a limited time, with select launch partners including

GitHub Copilot and Windsurf.

Its "strength lies in delivering strong performance in an

economical, compact form factor, making it a versatile choice

for tackling common coding tasks quickly and cost-effectively,"

xAI said.

AI companies such as OpenAI and Microsoft ( MSFT ) are

focusing on making AI coding assistants available to its users.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) in May introduced the GitHub Copilot feature, a

coding agent, at its annual Build software developer conference.

CEO Satya Nadella had in April said that 20% to 30% of overall

code in Microsoft ( MSFT ) is being written by AI.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI's agent, called Codex, was made

available to ChatGPT Plus users in June.

XAI sued Apple ( AAPL ) and OpenAI in U.S. federal court in

Texas on Monday, accusing them of illegally conspiring to thwart

competition for AI.