Tesla shareholders narrowly shot down a proposal to pump billions into his pet AI project xAI—thanks to a record number of folks who apparently decided napping during the vote was more exciting than funding the future.
The drama unfolded at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting, where the nonbinding measure to authorize an investment scraped together 1.06 billion yes votes against 916.3 million nos. But here’s the kicker: over 473 million abstentions—more than double any other proposal—tipped the scales, since Tesla’s bylaws treat sitting on the fence as a firm “nah.”
General Counsel Brandon Ehrhart assured the crowd Thursday that the board would mull over the “level of shareholder support” like a group of indecisive aunts at a family reunion. Musk, ever the optimist, had been hawking the idea of a $5 billion cash splash last year, insisting it would supercharge Tesla’s robot dreams.
Yet the proxy statement threw some shade, noting Musk’s “new innovative processes” at xAI might not quite align with Tesla’s day job of zipping cars around without crashing into squirrels. On the flip side, it cheekily admitted those AI antics could juice up Tesla’s autonomous wizardry and robo-buddies.
Board Chair Robyn Denholm played it coy in a Bloomberg chat last week, calling xAI’s grand AI scheming “very overarching” while Tesla sticks to nuts-and-bolts stuff like energy grids and joyrides on wheels. It’s like comparing a philosopher pondering the universe to a mechanic fixing your flat tire—both noble, but one’s not borrowing your toolbox.
The vote’s razor-thin margin has tongues wagging: did shareholders fear Musk’s empire would balloon into a black hole of cross-company favors? After all, xAI already shelled out nearly $200 million for Tesla’s Megapack batteries in 2024, and Grok—that sassy chatbot from Musk’s AI lair—now chats up Tesla drivers mid-commute.
Musk’s not one to sulk; he’s been on a fundraising frenzy for xAI, chasing $20 billion in debt and equity from bigwigs like Nvidia to build a Memphis data center fortress. Picture servers humming louder than a Cybertruck on caffeine, all fueled by posts scraped from X, the social network he rebranded from Twitter like a bad ex’s glow-up.
SpaceX, Musk’s rocket-riding sibling, already ponied up for xAI, and this year he merged the AI outfit with X in a move that screams “one big happy family—minus the therapy bills.” Critics whisper it could turn Tesla into just another spoke in the Musk wheel, spinning shareholders into dizziness.
But let’s not kid ourselves: with Grok now whispering sweet nothings to Tesla owners about traffic jams, the lines are already blurry. Will the board sneak in a smaller stake, or is this the universe’s way of saying “Elon, focus—one world domination at a time”?
As Ehrhart promised “next steps,” investors are left googly-eyed, wondering if abstaining was the real power play. In the end, it’s a reminder that even in Musk’s galaxy of gadgets, democracy means sometimes the best vote is hitting snooze.
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