Elon Musk confirmed he redirected Nvidia AI chips meant for Tesla to his other companies, X (formerly Twitter) and xAI, raising transparency concerns and potential delays in Tesla's AI and self-driving technology development.
Musk confirmed the diversion of 12,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs from Tesla to X and xAI, citing Tesla's lack of facilities to properly utilize the GPUs.
"Tesla had no place to send the Nvidia chips to turn them on, so they would have just sat in a warehouse," he wrote in a post on X Tuesday.
Nvidia's AI-focused chips are valuable, expensive, and in high demand, with Musk's companies pre-ordering Nvidia's H100 chips, which cost a high five-figure amount per unit.
Tesla plans to increase its acquisition of Nvidia's H100 AI chips to lead in AI and robotics, with Musk stating the company will boost H100 orders from 35,000 to 85,000 by year-end.
Musk's attention is divided among multiple ventures, including X, xAI, and the Grox chatbot, which recently raised $6 billion in funding, leading to shareholder criticism.
Musk faces a crucial shareholder vote on June 13 regarding his controversial $50 billion stock option payment, and two major U.S. advisory firms have advised shareholders to oppose Musk's compensation payment. The chip diversion highlights tension between Musk and shareholders who question his commitment to Tesla.
Sources: Axios, CNBC, Benzinga, NY Post, Finance Yahoo, Istoé, The UBJ, WinFuture, Focus, The Verge, and Yahoo News.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
