Elon Musk's AI startup xAI could help develop key Tesla initiatives and a share in some of the electric vehicle manufacturer's revenues, sources reported Wall Street Journal.
According to the report, the proposal presented to investors calls for Tesla to license xAI's artificial intelligence models to power its full autonomous driving (FSD) system, the company's driver assistance software, as well as its Siri-like voice assistant and Optimus humanoid robot.
The report also said that the amount of revenue Tesla will split with xAI will depend on how much of the startup's technology is used, although xAI has discussed the possibility of an equal split for FSD.
xAI representatives also told investors that the company will become a future supplier of critical technologies for Tesla's software products, the sources said. WSJ.
Tesla and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tesla's revenue-sharing deal discussions come as xAI has ample capital and is ramping up its own projects.
In May, xAI Raises $6B from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, among others. And last weekend xAI has launched a new supercomputer called Colossus.which is designed to train a large language model known as Grok, a competitor to OpenAI's GPT-4.
For now, Grok is only available to paid subscribers of Musk's social media platform. Xmany Tesla Experts believe that this will eventually form the artificial intelligence that will be the basis Optimus.
Musk himself has raised the prospect of closer ties between xAI and Tesla, saying he will discuss the matter with the automaker's board in July. potential investment of $5 billion at his AI startup. And on an earnings call that month, he told analysts that xAI had already “helped advance full autonomous driving and build Tesla’s new data center.”
But Musk's practice of merging his various companies has sparked controversy among some investors and lawmakers. In June, he acknowledged Nvidia chip distraction is designed for training neural networks from Tesla To X and xAI.
“Tesla had nowhere to send Nvidia chips to turn them on, so they would just sit in a warehouse,” he posted on X.
Meanwhile, Musk increasingly sees autonomy as key to Tesla's future, and has said the company will spend $10 billion on AI this year. The company is also reported to presented the long-awaited robotaxi at an event in October.
Tesla bulls like Ark Investment’s Cathie Wood see robotaxis as central to the company’s valuation and potential growth. In July, she predicted that the autonomous taxi platform would be the catalyst for a 10-fold increase in Tesla’s stock price.
“Autonomous taxi platforms are the biggest AI project going on today,” she told Bloomberg TV.
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