Musk suggests Tesla investor vote on xAI investment, rules out merger

Elon Musk ruled out a merger between Tesla and xAI but said he plans to hold a shareholder vote on investment in the artificial intelligence startup by the automaker, in the latest step to deepen integration across his business empire. His comments followed a Wall Street Journal report on Saturday that SpaceX, Musk's rocket firm, will invest $2 billion in xAI as part of a $5 billion funding round aimed at keeping pace with rivals, including OpenAI in the capital-intensive AI race. Musk, Tesla and xAI have not responded to Reuters requests for comment. The billionaire's companies already share close ties. XAI's Grok chatbot is rolling out to the automaker's vehicles, and Tesla engineers assisted Musk after his 2022 buyout of Twitter, the social media platform now known as X. Responding to a user post on X asking Tesla investors if they supported a merger between the two companies, Musk on Monday replied "No." He had said on Sunday he would ask Tesla shareholders to vote on whether the automaker can invest in xAI. "If it was up to me, Tesla would have invested in xAI long ago," Musk had saiWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times