Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced on the 25th (local time) that he would discuss with the board of directors whether to invest $5 billion (approximately 6.918 trillion KRW) of Tesla funds into the AI startup xAI, which he founded. Tesla's stock price rose nearly 2%.
After Tesla's Q2 earnings conference call on the 23rd, Musk posted a question on X (formerly Twitter), "Should Tesla invest $5 billion in xAI?" Over the course of a day, an online poll was conducted, with 958,086 participants, of whom 67.9% voted in favor and 32.1% opposed.
In response, Musk commented that day, "It seems the public is in favor," and added, "I will discuss this with the Tesla board."
Earlier, during Tesla's earnings conference call, Musk was asked whether Tesla would invest in xAI or integrate the AI chatbot Grok, developed by xAI, into Tesla's software. He replied, "Tesla is learning quite a lot from xAI regarding training full self-driving technology and building Tesla data centers." He also mentioned that Tesla would invest in xAI if shareholders approve.
However, if this investment succeeds, concerns about conflicts of interest among the various companies Musk operates, such as SpaceX and Neuralink, may resurface. Musk previously partially acknowledged media reports that Tesla prioritized delivering AI semiconductor chips ordered from Nvidia to xAI and X first. He also mentioned that Tesla's AI experts left Tesla to join xAI. Furthermore, questions about the independence of Tesla's board of directors are expected to increase.
Following weak Q2 earnings and the delay in the RoboTaxi announcement, which caused Tesla's stock to plunge double digits, the stock price rose again on this day. On the New York Stock Exchange, Tesla's stock closed at $220.25, up 1.97% from the previous session. During the day, the increase exceeded 4% at one point.
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