Elon Musk Wants Tesla To Back xAI — But Leaves It To Board And Shareholders: ‘Not Up To Me’

Tesla will poll shareholders on whether to invest in Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, the CEO said, following reports that SpaceX is prepared to commit $2 billion to the chatbot developer.

Musk, responding to a post on X, said the decision is “not up to me,” noting that Tesla’s board and shareholders would have to approve any such move. “If it was up to me, Tesla would have invested in xAI long ago,” he said.

Last year, he informally polled users about a $5 billion investment in xAI, calling it a way to test the waters.

Founded in early 2023 after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, xAI later merged with social platform X (owned by Musk) in a deal that valued it at $80 billion.

The combined entity, XAI Holdings, is now seeking new funding at a valuation of up to $200 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. 

However, Musk, on Friday, said that "rumors" of the AI company seeking that in its next fundraising round are "false." "xAI is not seeking funding right now," Musk said in a post on X. "We have plenty of capital."

The development points to deeper integration across Musk’s companies. In April, Tesla disclosed that xAI spent $198.3 million with the company last year, including $191 million on Megapack utility-scale energy storage batteries. 

Earlier this month, Musk said Tesla would integrate Grok into its vehicles, days after the chatbot drew criticism for antisemitic content posted on X.

On July 12, Tesla began rolling out Grok, xAI’s in-car conversational assistant, to new vehicles by default, with eligible older models receiving the feature via over-the-air updates. 

Grok currently supports vehicles with AMD infotainment chips and software version 2025.26 or later, including the Model S, 3, X, Y, and Cybertruck. 

It requires either Wi-Fi or a Premium Connectivity subscription, according to a Teslarati report.

The assistant can be launched via the App Launcher or by holding the voice command button, offering natural language responses across different personalities like “Storyteller” and “Unhinged.” 

However, Grok cannot yet issue commands to the vehicle, and standard voice controls remain separate.

Tesla said the beta version of Grok doesn’t require a separate subscription, and interactions are processed securely by xAI without linking to user accounts unless the user signs in. 

The chatbot is now featured prominently on Tesla’s vehicle pages, signaling the company’s growing push into AI as EV sales slow.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment was ‘bearish’ amid ‘normal’ message volume.

Tesla’s stock has declined 17.3% so far in 2025.

See also: Senate Panel Seeks $30 Billion Hike In Pentagon Budget For Shipbuilding, 10 More Lockheed Martin F-35 Jets

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