Musk says he does not support merger between Tesla and xAI

[AUSTIN] Elon Musk said on Monday (Jul 14) he does not support a merger between his electric vehicle maker Tesla and his artificial intelligence startup xAI, which owns the Grok chatbot and competes with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

In response to a user post on X that asked Tesla investors if they supported a merger between the two companies, Musk replied “No.”

On Sunday, Musk had said he would ask Tesla shareholders to vote whether Tesla can invest in xAI, after earlier saying “it would be great” if Tesla could do so.

Tesla and xAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

xAI acquired X, formerly called Twitter and also owned by Musk, in a US$33 billion deal in March this year, valuing the combined group at US$80 billion at the time.

Sources told Reuters in June that xAI had been in talks to raise money at a valuation of more than US$120 billion, while a valuation of as high as US$200 billion was also discussed.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Musk’s SpaceX had committed US$2 billion to xAI as part of a US$5 billion equity round. REUTERS