Musk launches poll asking if Tesla should invest $5 billion in xAI, early votes in favour By Reuters

By Hyunjoo Jin and Shivani Tanna

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Elon Musk has launched a poll asking customers on social media platform X whether or not the electrical carmaker should invest $5 billion in his synthetic intelligence startup xAI – with early votes displaying most in favour of the transfer.

“Board approval & shareholder vote are wanted, so that is simply to check the waters,” Musk mentioned of the poll which got here on the heels of Tesla posting its lowest revenue margin in 5 years on worth cuts and elevated spending on AI tasks.

Throughout Tesla’s incomes convention name, Musk mentioned xAI could be “useful in advancing full self-driving and in build up the brand new Tesla information middle,” including that there are alternatives to combine xAI’s chatbot, Grok, with Tesla’s software program.

Almost 3 hours after the poll was posted, roughly 386,000 folks had participated with 70% voting in favour of the funding.

Tesla didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark, whereas xAI couldn’t be reached for remark.

Musk, the world’s richest particular person, launched xAI final 12 months, hoping to construct a substitute for ChatGPT. The startup raised $6 billion in a sequence B funding in Could, attaining a post-money valuation of $24 billion. Backers embrace Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.

Musk has beforehand mentioned that he plans for 1 / 4 of xAI to be owned by traders in X, previously generally known as Twitter, which he purchased for $44 billion though the social media agency’s worth has plunged since then.

On the earnings name, Musk additionally dismissed considerations that he could also be diverting sources from Tesla to a few of his different corporations.

In June, CNBC reported that he had ordered Nvidia (NASDAQ:) to ship 1000’s of AI chips destined for Tesla to xAI and X. Musk mentioned Tesla’s information middle was full and there was no place to place the chips.

Musk is a frequent poller on X. In 2021, he requested Twitter customers about whether or not he should promote 10% of his Tesla stake and commenced promoting shares simply days after the poll.