Elon Musk has dismissed a recent report suggesting that his AI venture, xAI, is in talks with Tesla for a revenue-sharing agreement. The Wall Street Journal's Saturday report claimed that Tesla was considering licensing xAI’s artificial intelligence models to enhance its driver-assistance software and other technologies, with potential revenue-sharing terms outlined for investors.
According to the report, Tesla would utilize xAI’s technology to support features like full self-driving (FSD) software, a voice assistant for its electric vehicles, and software for its humanoid robot, Optimus. The proposed arrangement reportedly included a revenue split between Tesla and xAI, depending on how integral xAI’s technology would be to Tesla’s offerings.
However, Musk refuted these claims through a post on his social media platform X, stating, “Tesla has learned a lot from discussions with engineers at xAI that have helped accelerate achieving unsupervised FSD, but there is no need to license anything from xAI.” He further described the Wall Street Journal’s report as “not accurate.”
The Journal’s sources, who were not identified, also indicated that xAI might help with additional features for Tesla, including new software for the company's humanoid robot and other applications. The nature of the revenue-sharing agreement was suggested to be dependent on the extent of Tesla’s reliance on xAI’s technology compared to its own.
xAI was established by Musk last year as a competitor to Microsoft-backed OpenAI, raising speculation about potential overlaps between his AI and automotive ventures. Musk has previously stated that xAI could advance Tesla’s full self-driving capabilities and contribute to the development of Tesla’s new data center. There were also discussions about integrating xAI’s chatbot, Grok, with Tesla’s software.
In July, Musk mentioned that he and the Tesla board were contemplating a $5 billion investment in xAI, further fueling speculation about the relationship between the two companies.
As of now, xAI has not responded to requests for comment regarding the recent report or Musk's denial.
