July 22 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence

startup xAI is working with a financier to secure up to $12

billion more for its expansion plans, the Wall Street Journal

reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the situation.

Valor Equity Partners, an investment firm whose founder,

Antonio Gracias, has close ties to Musk, is in talks with

lenders to raise the capital, according to the report.

The money would be used to buy a massive supply of

advanced Nvidia ( NVDA ) chips that would be leased to xAI for a

new massive data center meant to help train and power AI chatbot

Grok, the WSJ reported.

XAI and Valor Equity Partners did not immediately

respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil

D'Silva)