(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 are focusing on making AI coding assistants available to its users.

Microsoft 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 is being written by AI.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI's agent, called Codex, was made available to ChatGPT Plus users in June.

XAI sued Apple and OpenAI in U.S. federal court in Texas on Monday, accusing them of illegally conspiring to thwart competition for AI.