Musk Is Offering Tesla a Dubious Deal (Again)
Apart from the obvious potential conflicts of interest, an xAI investment carries worrying echoes of the SolarCity rescue.
A new twist.
Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Tesla Inc.’s investors, perhaps a little troubled by the electric vehicle maker’s sagging sales and profits, are to be offered a bonus: A chance to own a slice of the model that recently called itself “MechaHitler”. That is but one of the dubious benefits of Elon Musk’s plan to have Tesla investors vote on the company investing in his artificial intelligence firm, xAI Holdings.
xAI made headlines for all the wrong reasons last week when its chatbot, Grok, ran amok with antisemitic replies to queries, followed swiftly by the resignation of Linda Yaccarino, chief executive of X, Musk’s social media platform that was rolled into xAI earlier this year. If all that doesn’t sound like the best time to pitch Tesla investors on buying in, you maybe weren’t around for the SolarCity deal in 2016.