Before Tesla shareholders voted to approve a $1 trillion bonus, Elon Musk spent most of his time 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 surpass them.
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 declining sales. However, throughout the summer, the 54-year-old billionaire mostly lived at the xAI headquarters in California.
Those who worked with Musk say he often held all-night meetings with his engineering team to improve Grok, the company's flagship chatbot, and personally participated in designing Ani, a blonde, provocatively dressed female character heavily promoted on the Grok app.
Passionate about AI
xAI employees are required to provide biometric data, including facial and voice data, to train characters like Ani. Some are concerned about how the data is used after signing a document allowing xAI to exploit images and voices “permanently, royalty-free, and transferable.”
In internal recordings obtained by the WSJ , numerous employees questioned how they could decline to participate in the project. The only response they received was that they could “contact the contacts listed in the document.”
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Elon Musk is spending most of his time on XAI. Photo: Bloomberg . |
Meanwhile, Elon Musk seems unfazed by the controversy. He frequently sleeps at the office, plays Diablo to relieve stress, and spends time with his children riding bikes to and from the workplace. Since leaving Washington, the Tesla CEO has directly overseen everything, from product development to hiring.
Earlier this year, xAI was still struggling to compete with OpenAI. Grok had few users and generated almost no revenue. To address the situation, Elon Musk canceled team meetings, switching to individual meetings with engineering teams, sometimes lasting for hours into the night.
In the weeks leading up to the launch of Grok 4, many employees had to work according to Musk's erratic schedule. His goal was to make Grok a true competitor to ChatGPT, while also proving that xAI could create more "human-like" AI technology.
Continuous expansion
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 sparked controversy due to her suggestive responses and "virtual lover" style.
While Musk was focusing all his efforts on xAI, Tesla faced unprecedented difficulties. In the second quarter of 2025, vehicle sales fell by 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 massive compensation package.
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The new compensation package could provide further motivation for Elon Musk. Photo: Bloomberg . |
This package could help his stake in Tesla increase from 15% to around 25% within a decade, equivalent to nearly $1 trillion in stock value, if ambitious goals such as selling one million Optimus robots and raising Tesla's market capitalization to $8.5 trillion are achieved.
Chairwoman Robyn Denholm asserted that she doesn't care how much time Musk spends on Tesla. "Other CEOs can play golf. He's creating new companies and isn't always focused on Tesla," Denholm said.
According to her, Musk's pursuit of AI will ultimately benefit Tesla, as the electric vehicle giant is also developing AI-based autonomous driving and humanoid robotics.
Besides the vote on the compensation package, Tesla shareholders also have to decide whether the company should invest in xAI. This proposal is divisive, with some investors believing the partnership could accelerate the adoption of AI, while others argue that xAI is still too risky.
Elon Musk's ambitions
Musk has publicly praised the potential for collaboration between Tesla and xAI. He stated that Grok has been experimentally integrated into Tesla vehicles as a voice assistant, and also assists the Optimus robot in communication. However, Denholm asserted that the two companies pursue separate goals. She likened integrating Grok into Tesla vehicles to using Spotify and stated that she doesn't use Grok in her own car.
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Elon Musk believes AI is the future of the world . Photo: Bloomberg . |
However, some former leaders are concerned that xAI is deviating from its original direction. For example, Grok had previously disseminated anti-Semitic and violent content on the X platform, forcing the company to temporarily suspend the chatbot and readjust its algorithm. According to internal documents, to improve Grok's capabilities, xAI employees were required to create personal accounts on ChatGPT, Replit, and Bolt, submit the same question, and then use the responses to retrain the xAI system.
While many suspect Musk is being distracted, he insists he still dedicates a significant amount of time to 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, with the internal AI chip being the "heart" of that process.
Despite two major consulting firms recommending that Tesla shareholders vote against the proposal, arguing that Musk's compensation package granted too much control, the board defended the proposal. Tesla maintained that the massive compensation was necessary to retain its "irreplaceable" CEO.
Source: https://znews.vn/noi-am-anh-cua-elon-musk-post1600077.html
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