Elon Musk's Obsession

As Tesla faces pressure from shareholders and sales slump, Elon Musk is devoting much of his time to xAI, expressing his belief that the future lies in artificial intelligence.

Before Tesla shareholders voted in a $1 trillion stock reward, Elon Musk spent most of his time working on his artificial intelligence company xAI. For him, the future lies not only in electric cars, but also in the ability to control AI before humans are surpassed.

When Musk left his position in the Trump administration at the end of May, he was expected to quickly return to Tesla to address the sales slump. However, the 54-year-old billionaire spent much of the summer at xAI headquarters in California.

People who have worked with him say Musk often meets all night with his engineering team to improve Grok, the company's flagship chatbot, and personally participated in the design of Ani, a blonde, sexy-dressed female cartoon character that is heavily promoted on the Grok app.

Passion for AI

xAI employees are asked to provide biometric data, including their faces and voices, to train characters like Ani. Some are concerned about how the data will be used after signing a document that allows xAI to exploit their images and voices “in perpetuity, royalty-free, and transferable.”

In internal recordings obtained by the WSJ , multiple employees asked how they could opt out of the project. The only response they received was that they could “contact the contacts listed in the document.”

Elon Musk is spending most of his time on XAI. Photo: Bloomberg .

Meanwhile, Elon Musk seems unconcerned with the controversy. He regularly sleeps in his office, plays Diablo to relieve stress, and spends time with his children cycling in and out of the office. Since leaving Washington, the Tesla CEO has taken charge of everything from product development to hiring.

Earlier this year, xAI was still struggling to compete with OpenAI. Grok had few users and barely any revenue. To address the situation, Elon Musk canceled all-hands meetings and instead met with individual groups of engineers, sometimes for hours at night.

In the weeks leading up to Grok 4’s launch, many employees were working around Musk’s erratic schedule. His goal was to make Grok a real competitor to ChatGPT, and to prove that xAI could create more “human” AI technology.

Constantly expanding

In addition to Grok, the company also launched the image and video creation tool Grok Imagine, along with two 3D avatars, Ani and Bad Rudi. Users can subscribe to a paid plan to chat with these characters. Ani quickly became a phenomenon but also caused controversy because of her sexy responses and "virtual lover" simulation style.

While Musk is focusing all his efforts on xAI, Tesla is facing unprecedented difficulties. In the second quarter of 2025, car sales fell 13.5%, marking the second consecutive quarter of decline. Under pressure from shareholders, Tesla's board of directors had to hold a series of meetings with major investors to protect Musk's huge compensation package.

New compensation package could give Elon Musk more motivation. Photo: Bloomberg .

The package could boost his stake in Tesla from 15% to about 25% within a decade, equivalent to nearly $1 trillion in stock value, if ambitious goals such as selling one million Optimus robots and bringing Tesla's market capitalization to $8.5 trillion are met.

Board Chair Robyn Denholm said she doesn’t care how much time Musk spends on Tesla. “Other CEOs can play golf. He’s creating new companies and not always focused on Tesla,” Denholm said.

Musk's pursuit of AI will ultimately benefit Tesla, she said, as the electric car giant is also developing AI-based autonomous technology and humanoid robots.

In addition to the pay package vote, Tesla shareholders will also have to decide whether the company should invest in xAI. The proposal is divisive, with some investors believing the partnership could accelerate AI adoption, while others say xAI is still too risky.

Elon Musk's ambition

Musk has publicly touted the potential for collaboration between Tesla and xAI, saying Grok has been tested in Tesla vehicles as a voice assistant and to help the Optimus robot communicate. However, Denholm insists the two companies are pursuing separate goals. She likened Grok integration into Tesla vehicles to using Spotify and said she does not use Grok in her own cars.

Elon Musk believes AI is the future of the world . Photo: Bloomberg .

However, some former executives are concerned that xAI is straying from its original direction. Grok, for example, has been spreading anti-Semitic and violent content on the X platform, forcing the company to suspend its chatbot and re-adjust its algorithm. According to internal documents, to improve Grok’s capabilities, xAI employees were asked to open personal accounts on ChatGPT, Replit, and Bolt, post the same questions, and use the responses to retrain xAI’s system.

While many suspect Musk is being distracted, he insists he still spends a lot of time on Tesla. At recent events, Musk has expressed his belief that AI and robotics will determine Tesla's future. He described Optimus, the humanoid robot Tesla is developing, as being able to work more efficiently than humans, and that the internal AI chip is the "heart" of that process.

Despite two major advisory firms recommending Tesla shareholders vote against the proposal, arguing that Musk’s compensation package gives too much control, the board has defended the proposal, arguing that the huge bonus is necessary to retain its “irreplaceable” CEO.

Source: https://znews.vn/noi-am-anh-cua-elon-musk-post1600077.html