ptwin Commentary: Elon Musk’s AI side gig should keep its distance from Tesla
NEW YORK: The all-in view of Tesla was summed up in a line from a report this summer by one of the more all-in analysts covering the company: “The car is to Tesla what the video game chip is to Nvidia. The car is to Tesla what selling books is to Amazon.”ptwin
Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas was arguing that Tesla is morphing from a maker of electric vehicles (EVs) to an artificial intelligence and robotics powerhouse. On this reading, a Tesla isn’t just a box-on-wheels with a battery but an AI-delivery vehicle.
CEO Elon Musk also touts this thesis, declaring with typical bravado: “If somebody doesn't believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company.”
An asterisk on that statement might be in order. This weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence side gig to his social media side gig, X, has floated the possibility of licensing its models to aid Tesla’s autonomous driving ambitions in exchange for a revenue-sharing deal.
Musk dismissed the story over the course of several tweets, including calling it “nonsense”.
On the other hand, only five months ago, Musk accused Reuters of “lying” when it reported that Tesla had scrapped plans for a sub-US$30,000 EV model, only for the company to soon after announce a pivot from a very cheap EV toward robotaxis.
Plus, Musk has already polled that body of impartial sages known as his followers as to whether Tesla should invest US$5 billion in xAI (the majority answered in the affirmative).
That flapping sound you hear is the wind blowing through a resplendence of red flags.ptwin
FILE PHOTO: xAI logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo