Elon Musk, Tesla‘s CEO, said the EV giant will ask its shareholders to vote on investing in his AI company, xAI.
Musk was responding to an X user with the handle “TSLA4orphans,” who said on Sunday that it would be unfair for Tesla retail investors if the company isn’t allowed to invest in xAI.
“It’s not up to me. If it was up to me, Tesla would have invested in xAI long ago,” Musk wrote on X on Sunday night.
“We will have a shareholder vote on the matter,” Musk added, though he did not specify when exactly the vote would occur.
Tesla and xAI did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Musk’s remark comes just hours after he confirmed that his rocket company, SpaceX, is looking to invest $2 billion into xAI. The planned investment was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
“It would be great, but subject to board and shareholder approval,” Musk wrote in an X post on Sunday morning.
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This wouldn’t be the first time xAI has sought to use its ties to Musk’s business empire, or what it called the “Muskonomy,” to pull in investments. Bloomberg reported in February 2024, citing a pitch deck it had obtained, that xAI had previously pitched investors on its links to Musk’s businesses.
Aside from running Tesla and SpaceX, Musk also helms his tunnelling company, The Boring Company, and AI brain chip company, Neuralink. In June 2024, Musk said he would prioritize “shareholders of my other companies, including Tesla,” if any of his businesses went public.
“Loyalty deserves loyalty,” Musk wrote in an X post on June 8.
Musk started xAI in July 2023. The company raised over $12 billion during its Series A, B, and C funding rounds last year and was valued at a reported $50 billion.
In March, Musk announced that xAI had acquired X in an all-stock deal. Musk said the deal “values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).” Musk had bought X, then known as Twitter, in October 2022 for $44 billion.
Last month, Morgan Stanley said xAI had raised $10 billion in debt and equity. The bank said the transaction was “oversubscribed and included prominent global debt investors.” It added that the deal’s proceeds will be used to develop xAI’s data centers and Grok chatbot.
