Elon Musk has posted a call on his social media platform X about whether Tesla should invest 5 billion dollars (4.6 billion euros) in his AI startup xAI. According to the eccentric tech entrepreneur, the survey is intended to test whether there is indeed such interest.
With the question on his social media platform, Musk wants to ‘test’ whether letting the deal between the two companies in his portfolio go through is wise. According to him, Tesla is learning a lot from xAI, including developing ‘Full Self-Driving’ vehicles and building the new Tesla data centre. When asked to what extent xAI’s Grok-LLM might be integrated into Tesla cars, Musk did not answer.
Incidentally, X-users do not determine whether such an investment will take place. Musk indicated in his own message that this would require approval from both shareholders and Tesla’s Board of Directors.
Multiple investments
The value of xAI is currently estimated at about 18 billion dollars. This year, the company already raised about 6 billion dollars in investments, including from the investment funds of Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. For a higher valuation for his AI startup, Musk only wants investments from ‘credible’ outside investors.
Tesla’s quarterly figures
Elon Musk received questions about a possible Tesla investment in xAI during a call about the electric carmaker’s latest quarterly results. Figures for the second quarter of this year came in lower than analysts had expected.
Sales came in only two percent higher than in the same period in 2023. Total sales for the quarter were 25.50 billion dollars. In the automotive segment, sales of Tesla cars fell 7 per cent. However, sales from energy storage, i.e. Tesla’s batteries division, rose. Also, ten percent of the workforce was either fired or otherwise reduced.
Musk indicated that Tesla will soon focus more heavily on producing robotic cabs and human robots.
Also read: Musk reportedly working on xAI supercomputer for late 2025