Tesla weighs shareholder proposals on investment in Musk's xAI
What's the story
Tesla has confirmed the receipt of multiple shareholder proposals regarding a potential investment in CEO Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, xAI. The move is part of a broader strategy to integrate Musk's business empire, with xAI acquiring social media platform X for $33 billion in March. This acquisition was aimed at improving chatbot training capabilities.
Funding boost
xAI's funding spree, chatbot integration into Teslas
xAI has been on a funding spree this year, raising $5 billion in debt and securing another $5 billion through a strategic equity investment. The information for the start-up was revealed by Morgan Stanley last month. As part of his integration strategy, Musk has also integrated the Grok chatbot into Tesla vehicles.
Market impact
Challenges and sharehholders' proposals
The potential investment in xAI comes at a time when Tesla is dealing with several challenges. These include Musk's political activities, which have reportedly affected the demand for its electric vehicles (EVs). The company's shares have also witnessed a 22% decline this year. Despite these hurdles, Musk remains open to shareholder proposals on any topic related to the company, he said during Tesla's recent quarterly earnings call.
Meeting details
Annual shareholder meeting
Tesla has scheduled its annual shareholder meeting for November 6. The company has also announced that it will include only one proposal on each topic in its proxy statement, as per Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules. Earlier this month, the board had set July 31 as the deadline for submitting shareholder proposals to be included in this proxy statement.