Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has asked fans on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, if the electric vehicle manufacturer ought to contribute $5 billion to his artificial intelligence business, xAI. With roughly 69.5 percent of the 440,189 individuals voting on behalf of the investment and thirty percent against it, the early results show strong public support. Musk explained that the purpose of this poll is to determine public opinion; the board and shareholders of Tesla must still formally approve it.
The investment proposal's context
Image Source: techzine.eu
Tesla just revealed that its profit margin was at its lowest level in five years as a result of pricing reductions and higher investment in artificial intelligence technologies. Musk stressed during Tesla’s most recent earnings conference that xAI might play a major role in constructing an entirely new Tesla data facility and expanding fully autonomous driving features. Musk also mentioned how Tesla’s software might be integrated with xAI’s chatbot, Grok.
xAI's History and Finances
Musk introduced xAI last year as a replacement for ChatGPT, and it has since advanced significantly. With a total of six billion dollars in series B capital secured in May, the business was valued at 24 billion dollars after taking on debt. Two well-known investors are Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Additionally, Musk has stated that investors in X, the social media network he paid $44 billion to acquire, will hold 25 percent of xAI.
Prior Surveys and Judgment Making
Musk is accustomed to making decisions based on X surveys. He polled users in 2021 to see if he should sell 10 percent of his Tesla ownership, and he quickly sold shares in response. Even if it reflects public interest, this survey is just the first one. Tesla’s board members and shareholders will ultimately decide whether to invest the $5 billion, and they will need to carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of doing so.
Issues and Strategic Perspectives
During the results call, Musk played off worries about using Tesla’s resources for his other projects. Remarkably, in June, CNBC revealed that, because of space constraints at Tesla’s data centre, Musk had given Nvidia the order to ship thousands of AI processors meant for Tesla to xAI and X.
Although public opinion seems to be in support of this large investment, Tesla’s major stakeholders will need to give it careful thought before making a final choice.
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