Elon Musk introduced his new firm xAI which he says has the purpose to know the true nature of the universe.
Jaap Arriens | Nurphoto | Getty Photographs
Tesla offered $430 million value of its big backup batteries known as Megapacks to xAI, Elon Musk’s synthetic intelligence startup, in 2025, in accordance with a submitting on Thursday.
The gross sales to xAI accounted for round 3.4% of Tesla’s vitality enterprise income, which climbed 27% to $12.8 billion final 12 months from $10.1 billion in 2024, the submitting mentioned.
Tesla’s vitality division, which sells photo voltaic photovoltaics and battery storage methods of assorted sizes, was a vibrant spot for the corporate, as auto income dropped 10% to $69.5 billion, weighed down by a tarnished model fame and an growing older lineup.
As a result of autos stay Tesla’s predominant income, complete gross sales fell roughly 3% for the 12 months, declining for the primary time on report.
Musk first included xAI in March 2023, and revealed its existence publicly 4 months later, describing it as a politically incorrect competitor to OpenAI. Musk co-founded OpenAI as an AI lab in 2015, and left in 2018, years earlier than the corporate launched ChatGPT. The 2 sides are actually concerned in heated litigation, with a trial anticipated to start in April.
In its fourth-quarter earnings launch on Wednesday, Tesla mentioned it was investing $2 billion in xAI as a part of the startup’s newest spherical of funding.
Tesla’s funding got here after the announcement of plenty of investigations throughout the globe into xAI’s Grok chatbot and picture generator, which enabled the widespread nonconsensual creation and distribution of specific deepfake photographs
Earlier this month, xAI mentioned that it raised $20 billion in its current funding spherical from plenty of buyers, together with Nvidia and Cisco. Reuters reported on Thursday that SpaceX is weighing a merger with xAI forward of a deliberate IPO for Musk’s aerospace and protection firm
XAI beforehand introduced it was utilizing Tesla Megapacks to assist energy its information infrastructure in and round Memphis, Tennessee, dwelling to its information heart known as Colossus.
Megapacks are used for enterprise and utility-scale developments, and Tesla’s newer Megablocks are a mix of 4 Megapacks round one transformer. The methods use lithium-ion or different battery cells, serving to information facilities and utilities keep away from blackouts, permitting for vitality storage from sources like photo voltaic and wind.
In 2025, xAI put in and was utilizing 35 pure gas-burning generators to energy operations on the Colossus facility, in accordance with aerial video obtained by the Southern Environmental Regulation Middle. Emissions from the generators led to group uproar, with residents complaining of a stench, well being issues and an incapability to maintain their home windows open at dwelling.
The Environmental Safety Company lately up to date a rule regarding using such generators, making clear that they don’t seem to be exempt from the necessity for Clear Air Act permits.
In a lawsuit that is pending in Delaware, Musk has been accused of violating his fiduciary obligation to Tesla shareholders by diverting the automaker’s sources to xAI.
