news

tencent technology news, september 8, according to foreign media reports, elon musk's artificial intelligence startup xai is exploring a cooperation agreement, under which xai will authorize tesla to use its cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology. in return, tesla will provide xai with a portion of the revenue share. this marks a further deepening of the cooperation relationship between musk's companies.

the draft agreement states that tesla will use xai's artificial intelligence model to optimize its "full self-driving" (fsd) function and promise to share part of the revenue generated with xai. in addition, xai will also participate in the development of tesla's other innovative projects, including building an advanced in-vehicle voice interaction system similar to siri and providing core software support for the humanoid robot (optimus).

regarding the specific terms of revenue sharing, the two parties will make an assessment based on tesla's reliance on xai technology and the relative contribution of its own technology, and xai's management hopes to achieve equal profit sharing with tesla on the fsd project.

musk has bet tesla's future on deep deployment in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence. the fsd service provides tesla owners with the option of a monthly subscription ($99) or a one-time purchase ($8,000), although users need to keep their hands on the steering wheel when using it. at the same time, tesla is working hard to develop a revolutionary self-driving taxi, which is scheduled to be unveiled on october 10, but the exact timetable for its public launch has yet to be announced.

musk has always kept his promise for many years. he believes that fsd technology will achieve a significant leap, enabling all tesla cars to achieve the vision of fully autonomous driving, and predicts that this achievement will lead tesla to a trillion-dollar market value. he further emphasized that if fully autonomous driving is not achieved, tesla's value will "shrink significantly, almost to zero."

the official cooperation with xai marks that tesla has entrusted part of its software revenue and the responsibility of future ai research and development to a company also led by musk. this move once again demonstrates musk's unique strategy of flexibly allocating resources and promoting internal collaboration in his business territory. according to the cooperation framework, xai will provide tesla with its artificial intelligence technology, and tesla will share part of the revenue from its software business.

musk has previously flexibly allocated talent and hardware resources between xai and tesla to enhance competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence, but this move has aroused widespread concern about potential conflicts of interest. as a listed company, tesla's decision on resource sharing is particularly eye-catching and faces strict scrutiny. some tesla shareholders have even filed lawsuits, accusing musk of harming investors' interests by shifting resources to xai. these cases are being heard in the delaware chancery court.

at the same time, xai has attracted many talents from tesla, including core members who are directly involved in the development of autopilot autonomous driving technology. it is reported that musk also transferred tens of thousands of scarce nvidia gpus ordered by tesla to xai. musk explained: "tesla has no place to deploy these nvidia chips. if they are not transferred to xai, they will be idle in the warehouse."

in its introduction to investors, xai claimed that it hoped to become an indispensable key technology supplier in tesla's software product system. musk himself also actively solicited public opinions on social media to explore the possibility of tesla injecting $5 billion into xai. a few days later, he posted again: "it seems that the public supports this proposal. i will discuss this with the tesla board of directors."

musk has used equity incentives to help his other companies grow in the past. he previously announced that he would reserve a quarter of xai's shares as a reward for investors who participated in his $44 billion acquisition of x. xai's grok chatbot has been successfully integrated into the x platform, demonstrating the close relationship between the two companies in terms of resource sharing and collaborative innovation.

"tesla is deeply inspired and benefited by xai," musk admitted in a july investor conference call. after tesla's earnings report was released, he also mentioned that xai provided practical help in improving fsd technology and tesla's construction of data center infrastructure. at the same time, musk also expressed his vision of integrating grok chatbot technology into tesla's software ecosystem.

in may this year, xai successfully raised $6 billion in a financing round with a valuation of up to $24 billion, attracting heavyweight investors including sequoia capital, andreessen horowitz, valor equity partners, saudi prince al-waleed bin talal and kingdom holdings. in the same month, xai launched a new data center called colossus in tennessee, which musk praised as "the world's most powerful artificial intelligence training system."

musk reiterated that tesla will spend $10 billion this year to strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities. he emphasized in an april earnings call: "investors who are skeptical of tesla's ability to solve autonomous driving problems may want to consider re-evaluating their investment positions and should not hold tesla shares." the specific impact of the transaction with xai on tesla's spending is still unclear.

tesla has invested heavily in data center construction and is also developing its own supercomputer chip called dojo. its data centers are widely distributed, covering palo alto, california, austin, texas, and plans to add new facilities in buffalo, new york. it is worth noting that xai and tesla maintain close mutual consultation and cooperation in the design and implementation of data centers.

faced with increasingly fierce competition in the electric vehicle market, tesla's sales and profits have been affected to a certain extent. as of friday (september 6th) local time in the united states, tesla's stock price has fallen by about 14% so far this year. (compiled by jinlu)