Musk To Discuss Investing $5B in xAI After Seeing Poll Results

Business tycoon Elon Musk plans to talk with the board of Tesla, Inc. TSLA about possibly investing $5 billion in his artificial intelligence startup xAI.

What Happened: Earlier this week, Musk gave his 191 million X followers a chance to weigh in on the possible expenditure by placing a yes-no survey on the platform on Tuesday.

“Should Tesla invest $5B into xAI, assuming the valuation is set by several credible outside investors?” Musk asked.

He also wrote “Board approval & shareholder vote are needed, so this is just to test the waters” in parentheses.

About 67.9% of 958,086 voters approved the idea by the next day. And Musk indicated that he plans to discuss the heavy investment with his seven fellow Tesla board members.

“Looks like the public is in favor. Will discuss with Tesla board,” he wrote on X.

Also Read: Tesla, Ford, GM And Other Automakers Trade Lower In Premarket After Elon Musk And Jim Farley’s Team Fail To Soothe Investors

Why It Matters: Musk continues to blur the line between all the entities he owns.

Musk, Tesla’s largest shareholder, previously sold large blocks of the EV stock to help finance his $44-billion purchase of X, back when it did business as Twitter.

The billionaire founded xAI last year in an effort to compete with Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG AI tech as well as OpenAI producer ChatGPT and its corporate backer, Microsoft Corporation MSFT.

The xAI startup raised $6 billion in a series B funding in May, giving it a post-money valuation of $24 billion.

Price Action: Tesla has risen 3.69% to $223.95 as of Thursday’s late-afternoon trading, while exchange-traded funds that hold Tesla stock also made gains, some leaping nearly 8%.