By Hyunjoo Jin and Shivani Tanna
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Elon Musk has launched a ballot asking customers on social media platform X whether or not the electrical carmaker ought to make investments $5 billion in his synthetic intelligence startup xAI – with early votes exhibiting most in favour of the transfer.
“Board approval & shareholder vote are wanted, so that is simply to check the waters,” Musk mentioned of the ballot which got here on the heels of Tesla posting its lowest revenue margin in 5 years on value cuts and elevated spending on AI tasks.
Throughout Tesla’s incomes convention name, Musk mentioned xAI can be “useful in advancing full self-driving and in build up the brand new Tesla information heart,” including that there are alternatives to combine xAI’s chatbot, Grok, with Tesla’s software program.
Almost 3 hours after the ballot was posted, roughly 386,000 individuals 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 collection 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 firms.
In June, CNBC reported that he had ordered Nvidia (NASDAQ:) to ship hundreds of AI chips destined for Tesla to xAI and X. Musk mentioned Tesla’s information heart 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 ought to promote 10% of his Tesla stake and commenced promoting shares simply days after the ballot.
