SeveralTeslaShareholders recently filed a lawsuit in Delaware against the company's CEOMuskand the board intentionally diverted the company’s talent and resources to Musk’s competing AI company xAThe company, founded in 2023, aims to understand the "true nature of the universe." Shareholders claim that Musk and the board violated their fiduciary duties to Tesla by launching xAI.
For years, Musk has tried to position Tesla as a robotics and artificial intelligence powerhouse, rather than just a car company. That narrative has driven Tesla’s stock price higher, making the company more valuable than all the top automakers combined. Meanwhile, Musk “shifted scarce talent and resources from Tesla to xAI, and promoted xAI’s access to Tesla’s AI-related data while raising billions of dollars,” the lawsuit states.
Tesla shareholders also cited a recent CNBC report accusing Musk of ordering thousands of Nvidia-made AI chips that were supposed to be delivered to Tesla to be diverted to the social media company. After the CNBC article was published, Musk wrote on xAI that Tesla could not accept Nvidia's GPUs because its factory in Austin, Texas was not yet completed. He also estimated that Tesla will purchase $3 billion to $4 billion in AI chips from Nvidia in 2024.
The shareholders also accused Tesla's board of directors of taking no action, allowing Musk to "plunder resources from Tesla and transfer them to xAI; and create billions of dollars of AI-related value at another company."
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the only shareholder lawsuit to emerge this week. An institutional investor sued the company, claiming that Musk used insider information to make billions of dollars by selling Tesla stock.