Key Takeaways
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he does not support a merger of Tesla with xAI, his artificial intelligence startup.
- Musk did say, however, that he supports Tesla investing in the maker of the Grok chatbot.
- The chatbot was added to Tesla vehicles in a beta test over the weekend.
Tesla (TSLA) does not have any plans to acquire CEO Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI, but the electric vehicle maker could invest in the company, Musk said over the weekend.
Questions about a potential deal arose after xAI’s Grok was added to Tesla vehicles as a beta test program over the weekend, and after it was reported that SpaceX, another Musk company, is investing $2 billion in xAI. Users on X—the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that Musk bought in 2022 and that merged with xAI earlier this year—asked if Tesla shareholders would support a merger between the companies.
“No,” Musk responded in early of Monday morning. In other posts earlier in the weekend, however, the CEO said he was in favor of the EV maker investing in xAI.
“It’s not up to me. If it was up to me, Tesla would have invested in xAI long ago,” Musk posted on Sunday. “We will have a shareholder vote on the matter.” Last week, a regulatory filing revealed that Tesla will hold its annual shareholder meeting on Nov. 6, when a vote on any investment could take place.
Musk asked his followers last summer if Tesla should invest in xAI, adding later that he would discuss it with Tesla’s board after just over two-thirds of the votes were in favor. It’s unclear if those discussions happened, or whether Tesla has already invested in or paid xAI to have Grok added to Tesla vehicles.
The world’s richest person also over the weekend teased a potential product launch for Tesla later this year. “Just left the @Tesla design studio,” Musk said. “Most epic demo ever by end of year. Ever.” Tesla was expected to unveil a more affordable model in the first half of this year, though it’s unclear if Musk is referring to that project or a demo for another Tesla product, such as upgrades to its self-driving software or new capabilities of Tesla’s Optimus robots.
Tesla shares were up nearly 1% in afternoon trading. They entered the day down more than 20% since the start of this year.
This article was updated since it was first published to reflect new share-price information.
Source link
