Elon Musk has dismissed assertions that Tesla intends to share revenue with xAI for the use of its AI models. The rebuttal follows a report by The Wall Street Journal suggesting Tesla might integrate xAI's technology into its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software.
Report by The Wall Street Journal
The WSJ article claimed that Tesla planned to enhance its driver-assistance software using xAI models. It also touched on potential collaborative efforts in developing a voice assistant for Tesla cars and software for the humanoid robot, Optimus. There was mention of a proposed agreement in which Tesla would share revenue with xAI according to the level of technology deployment.
Musk used his platform X, previously known as Twitter, to respond to these claims. He called the summary of the WSJ report “not accurate,” emphasizing that Tesla has no intentions of licensing xAI models. Musk pointed out that while Tesla has had productive discussions with xAI engineers, the models' size and complexity render them incompatible with Tesla's vehicle inference computers.
Haven't read the article, but the above is not accurate.
Tesla has learned a lot from discussions with engineers at xAI that have helped accelerate achieving unsupervised FSD, but there is no need to license anything from xAI.
The xAI models are gigantic, containing, in…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 8, 2024
xAI's Ambitions
Established by Musk to compete with OpenAI, xAI has outlined ambitious goals. TechCrunch reported earlier this year that xAI aims to train its models with data sourced from Musk's enterprises, including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X. These models are expected to boost technologies across these companies.
In May, xAI amassed $6 billion in investment from notable backers such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. The startup has also introduced a supercomputer named Colossus to train its large language model, Grok, which competes with OpenAI's GPT-4. Currently, Grok is accessible to subscribers of Musk's social media platform X and is anticipated to eventually power Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus.
Controversies and Legal Issues
Musk's strategy of linking his companies has sparked debate. Tesla shareholders have filed a lawsuit against Musk, claiming he diverted resources and talent from Tesla to xAI. Furthermore, Musk has admitted to reallocating Nvidia chips meant for Tesla to X and xAI, explaining that the chips would have otherwise remained idle in storage.
Despite these controversies, Musk remains confident about the synergies between his companies. He has mentioned a potential $5 billion investment from Tesla into xAI and indicated during an earnings call that xAI has already played a role in advancing FSD and in the development of a new Tesla data center.
Musk sees autonomy as vital to Tesla's future, with the company projected to spend $10 billion on AI this year. Tesla is also set to reveal its anticipated robotaxi at an October event. Investors such as Cathie Wood of Ark Investment believe that autonomous taxi platforms could substantially boost Tesla's stock value, predicting significant growth.
