Elon Musk asks if Tesla should invest $5 bln in xAI

Investing.com-- Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday asked his followers on social media platform X whether the electric vehicle maker should invest $5 billion in his artificial intelligence startup xAI. 

“Board approval&shareholder vote are needed, so this is just to test the waters,” Musk said while posing the question through a poll for his over 190.5 million followers on X. 

Of the 286,472 respondents to the poll, 70.5% voted yes while 29.5% voted no. The poll is open until Wednesday evening. 

Musk founded xAI in March 2023 with a mission to “understand the universe.” The company had in May 2024 reportedly raised $6 billion of funding through a slew of venture capital firms. 

Earlier this week, Musk said the firm was training the “world’s most powerful AI,” although he did not provide details. 

His poll on X comes just hours after Tesla clocked a disappointing second-quarter profit, as the EV maker grapples with declining sales, increased competition and mounting costs from forays into AI and self-driving.

Tesla’s AI ambitions are being pegged as a lifeline for the company, which has now clocked four straight quarters of declining sales. 

Musk’s management of X, SpaceX and his starting of xAI have drawn some criticism from Tesla shareholders that he is not directing all of his attention to the company. 

But shareholders still voted in favor of an unprecedented $55 billion pay package for the Tesla CEO earlier this year.