Elon Musk rules out merger between Tesla and xAI
What's the story
Elon Musk has denied the possibility of a merger between his electric vehicle company, Tesla, and his artificial intelligence start-up, xAI. The latter owns the Grok chatbot and competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Responding to a post on social media platform X that asked Tesla investors if they would support such a merger, Musk simply replied, "No."
Investment proposal
Musk had sought Tesla shareholders' opinion on investing in xAI
Just a day before his merger denial, Musk had said he would seek the opinion of Tesla shareholders on whether the company should invest in xAI. He had earlier suggested that it "would be great" if Tesla could make such an investment. However, neither Tesla nor xAI has commented on these developments yet, Reuters reports.
Business moves
xAI's valuation and Musk's net worth
In March, xAI acquired Musk's X in a $33 billion deal, bringing the combined valuation of the group to $80 billion at the time. According to Reuters in June, xAI was in talks to raise money at a valuation of over $120 billion, with discussions going as high as $200 billion.
Funding details
SpaceX reportedly invested $2B into xAI
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Musk's other company, SpaceX, had invested $2 billion into xAI. This was part of a larger $5 billion equity round. The investment highlights the growing financial ties between Musk's companies and his AI start-up, which is rapidly growing in the tech industry.