Elon Musk Announces Tesla Shareholder Vote on Investment in xAI

According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk's SpaceX is preparing to invest $2 billion in xAI, the developer of the Grok chatbot. Musk stated that Tesla plans to hold a shareholder vote regarding the potential investment in xAI. In response to a post on the X platform, Musk mentioned that any decision to support the startup wouldn't be solely his. He said, "If it were up to me, Tesla would have already invested in xAI," adding that the matter would be put to a shareholder vote. Last year, Musk publicly asked users on the X platform whether Tesla should invest $5 billion in xAI, claiming he was merely gauging public opinion. However, he also indicated that any investment decision would require approval from Tesla's board and supporters. The Wall Street Journal reported on July 12 that SpaceX had committed to invest $2 billion in xAI as part of a new $5 billion equity financing round. This move deepens the business ties between Musk's companies as xAI intensifies its competition with OpenAI. The report also noted that the Grok chatbot currently supports SpaceX's Starlink technology and is expected to be integrated into Tesla's electric vehicles and the Optimus robot in the future. Musk founded xAI in early 2023, following the global AI boom triggered by OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT. The latest merger documents reveal that xAI has completed integration with the social media platform X, with xAI being valued at $80 billion and X at $33 billion. According to Bloomberg's latest reports, the merged xAI holding company is negotiating funding at a valuation of up to $200 billion. Industry insiders point out that Tesla CEO Musk is accelerating the integration of his business landscape, indicating that the collaboration between Tesla and xAI is set to expand further. Some Tesla investors have called for stronger cooperation between the two companies amid declining electric vehicle sales. In April, Tesla disclosed that xAI would be one of its customers in 2024, with related transactions in commercial cooperation, technical consulting, and support services amounting to $198.3 million, of which $191 million came from xAI's purchase of Tesla's Megapack large-scale energy storage battery system.