Musk defers xAI investment decision to Tesla shareholders

Elon Musk has signaled that he will not unilaterally decide whether Tesla Inc. should invest in his artificial intelligence startup, xAI. Instead, the decision will be left to Tesla’s shareholders.

“Shareholders are welcome to put forward any shareholder proposals they’d like,” Musk said on Wednesday during Tesla’s second-quarter earnings call. His remarks came in response to a query on whether the electric car maker could fund or have a stake in xAI.

Musk had recently posted support for such a purchase on his own social media platform, X. But he was definitive on the question during the earnings call, saying in response to a question, “It’s not up to me.”

Vaibhav Taneja, Tesla’s chief financial officer, also reflected on the matter and said that it was not the platform to talk about it, suggesting that the company’s executives would leave the decision to the formal processes of its shareholders.

Tesla’s next annual general meeting is set for Nov. 6, potentially allowing investors a chance to bring up and vote on the issue. Musk did not say whether the proposal would appear on that agenda meeting, but said a vote was inevitable.

xAI expands further ties with Tesla

xAI, which was established by Musk in 2023, has yet to make significant headway in the incredibly saturated AI field. Unlike competitors like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, xAI hasn’t signed any big corporate customers or made itself broadly available to developers.

Its main product is a chatbot named Grok, which has generated excitement for its potential as a way to plug into X. Grok is meant to be more cutting and sarcastic than the average chatbot. Musk has claimed that it is more “honest” than ChatGPT.

xAI isn’t a one-off; it already has a partnership with Tesla, despite what made news today. The startup is a Tesla Energy business customer and buys Megapack utility-scale batteries. Tesla has big plans for Grok in its vehicles, where AI will offer services to drivers and passengers.

The momentum behind xAI is also supported by Musk’s other venture-backed companies. Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is committing about $2 billion to xAI in June. There are doubts whether Tesla, Musk’s most valuable and publicly traded company, would invest in the AI venture.

Musk has previously made the point that Tesla shareholders should get in on some of xAI’s likely expansion, since the two companies have some degree of technological overlap and shared leadership. “It’s a good idea for Tesla’s shareholders to have an exposure to AI,” Musk wrote on X earlier this year.

Musk unveils more big plans for Tesla shareholders

This wouldn’t be the first time Tesla shareholders have been asked to vote on a controversial Musk-led proposal. In 2016, Tesla shareholders signed off on a $2.6 billion deal to buy SolarCity, a solar energy company founded by Musk’s cousins that was floundering at the time. That arrangement drew lawsuits and criticism for potential conflicts of interest, but Musk defended it as a long-term strategic decision.

Now, with Musk managing several companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, X, and Neuralink, among others, concerns about overlap and fair governance are flaring anew. Critics say Tesla, a public company with a fiduciary duty to shareholders, should be prudent in backing other Musk ventures unless there is a clear benefit.

Jumping back to 2023, Musk conducted an impromptu poll on X to see if users thought Tesla should pursue the development of xAI. A majority said yes. Musk later said that the company’s board would consider the possibility. But there has been no formal response — until now.

Should Tesla shareholders formally propose an investment and the motion be included in the upcoming annual meeting agenda, the vote would be an opportunity for a new chapter in Tesla’s strategy and a tighter alliance with Musk’s ever-expanding AI aspirations.

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