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Musk teases Tesla–xAI deal: 'If it was up to me, we’d have invested long ago,' leaves decision to shareholders

Musk teases Tesla–xAI deal: 'If it was up to me, we’d have invested long ago,' leaves decision to shareholders

Elon Musk, xAI Photograph: (Reuters)

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On X, a user on Sunday posted, "Tesla needs to be able to invest in xAI, otherwise not fair to $TSLA retail investors."  In reply, the world's richest man, Musk, said that it was not up to him and that "If it was up to me, Tesla would have invested in xAI long ago."

Elon Musk on X has revealed that Tesla shareholders may soon vote on whether the electric carmaker should invest in his AI startup xAI — a controversial company currently valued at up to $200 billion. xAI, as per Bloomberg, is burning through over $1 billion per month, with its expenses far exceeding its revenues. Responding to an X user's post, Musk said that if it were up to him, Tesla would have invested in the AI startup "long ago".

"If it was up to me"

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On X, a user on Sunday posted, "Tesla needs to be able to invest in xAI, otherwise not fair to $TSLA retail investors." In reply, the world's richest man, Musk, said that it was not up to him and that "If it was up to me, Tesla would have invested in xAI long ago." He added that “We will have a shareholder vote on the matter.”

The proposed tie-up marks the latest twist in Musk's growing AI empire. In recent months, the billionaire has aggressively pitched xAI as a potential challenger to OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini. xAI's flagship product, the Grok chatbot, is integrated into the X platform, also owned by Musk. According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk's space company SpaceX is already investing $2 billion into xAI as part of a wider $5 billion capital raise.

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Musk has previously said that xAI will become the "most powerful AI training system in the world" and pitched it as highly complementary to Tesla and SpaceX, particularly in areas like autonomous driving, real-time navigation, and data processing for rockets and electric vehicles.

xAI's staggering losses and controversial chatbot

Founded in July 2023, xAI is reportedly seeking a valuation between $170 and $200 billion, according to the Financial Times. However, But its financials remain deeply in the red. Bloomberg reports that xAI burns through over $1 billion a month to build its upgraded models, massive data centers and train its AI systems. Its virtual assistant Grok has recently been at the center of a number of controversies; the latest in which the AI chatbot praise Adolf Hitler and suggested that people with Jewish surnames were more likelu to spread hate online.On Saturday, xAI issued an apology and said the offensive instructions had been corrected.

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Moohita Kaur Garg

Moohita Kaur Garg is a senior sub-editor at WION with over four years of experience covering the volatile intersections of geopolitics and global security. From reporting on global...Read More