Musk's Poll: Should Tesla Invest $5 Billion in xAI? Early Votes Show Strong Support

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has launched a poll asking if Tesla should invest $5 billion in his AI company, xAI, with early results favoring the proposal.

Musk Characterized the Poll as an Experiment

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has started a poll on the social media site X to see if the electric vehicle manufacturer should put $5 billion into his artificial intelligence company, xAI. So far, the majority of respondents are in favor of the idea.

Musk characterized the poll as an experiment, saying, "Board approval & shareholder vote are needed, so this is just to test the waters." The poll followed Tesla's lowest profit margin in five years, which was caused by price reduction and increased spending on AI initiatives.

xAI's Role in Tesla's Future, as Discussed by Musk

On Tesla's earnings call, Musk mentioned that xAI will be "helpful in advancing full self-driving and in building up the new Tesla data center," and he also mentioned that there are chances to combine xAI's chatbot, Grok, with Tesla's tech.

Roughly 386,000 individuals took part in the poll, with 70% of them favoring the investment, just three hours after it was posted.

No one from Tesla or xAI was available to comment when Reuters sought out for comment.

Launched Last Year, xAI Aims to Rival ChatGPT

Last year, Musk—the wealthiest man in the world—launched xAI with the intention of creating a substitute for ChatGPT. The firm reached a post-money valuation of $24 billion after raising $6 billion in May's series B fundraising. Some of the backers include Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

Per Investing.com, even though the value of the social media company has fallen since Musk purchased it for $44 billion, he has stated in the past that he intends for investors in X—previously known as Twitter—to acquire 25% in xAI.

Musk also downplayed suspicions that he was shifting funding away from Tesla and toward his other businesses during the results call.

He reportedly instructed Nvidia to send thousands of AI chips meant for Tesla to xAI and X in June, according to CNBC. Musk claimed that Tesla's data center was at capacity and could not accommodate any more chips.

On X, Musk is a regular voter. Just days after polling Twitter followers on whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla ownership in 2021, he started selling shares.