Elon Musk dominated out a merger between Tesla and xAI however stated he plans to carry a shareholder vote on funding within the synthetic intelligence startup by the automaker, within the newest step to deepen integration throughout his enterprise empire.
His feedback adopted a Wall Road Journal report on Saturday that SpaceX, Musk’s rocket agency, will make investments $2 billion in xAI as a part of a $5 billion funding spherical aimed toward preserving tempo with rivals within the capital-intensive AI race.
Musk, Tesla and xAI didn’t reply to Reuters requests for remark.
The billionaire’s corporations already share shut ties. XAI’s Grok chatbot is rolling out to the automaker’s autos, and Tesla engineers assisted Musk after his 2022 buyout of Twitter, the social media platform now often called X.
Responding to a consumer submit on X asking Tesla traders in the event that they supported a merger between the 2 corporations, Musk on Monday replied “No.” He had stated on Sunday he would ask Tesla shareholders to vote on whether or not the automaker can put money into xAI.
“If it was up to me, Tesla would have invested in xAI long ago,” Musk had stated on X.
D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria stated Tesla already has entry to xAI’s superior fashions however may benefit from the startup’s rising worth if it turns into a winner in AI.
Integrating expertise, expertise and monetary backing is a theme that runs throughout Musk’s empire of corporations. Earlier this yr, xAI acquired Musk’s X in a $33 billion deal that valued the mixed group at $80 billion on the time.
That deal meant the X platform would turn out to be useful to additional distribute xAI merchandise, whereas additionally offering a real-time feed of customers’ posts and big quantities of different knowledge.
Investments into xAI would assist Grok higher compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT by rising capital towards analysis and growth.
“xAI will require tens of billions of dollars of investment in order to continue on its current path… With a board that has been very supportive of Mr. Musk in the past, we would expect that Tesla capital to be available to xAI,” Luria stated.
xAI not too long ago launched Grok 4, its newest flagship AI mannequin. Whereas Musk has touted it as “the smartest AI in the world,” Grok utilization nonetheless lags ChatGPT.
