Musk’s new approach to artificial intelligence has hit Tesla hard (ANGELA WEISS via Getty Images)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that if the company is to fully realize its AI ambitions, he will have to personally gain more control over Tesla.
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“If I can’t hold about 25% of Tesla stock to control it, I have no confidence that the company can become a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics. That’s a pretty big influence, but my decision can still be overturned.” On Monday evening, Musk wrote on his X account: “If I can’t achieve this control share, I would prefer to make these products outside of Tesla.”
Musk went on to say that large asset custodians like Fidelity and BlackRock own Tesla shares similar to his, and asked, “Why don’t they come to work?”
Putting aside the strange comparisons made by Musk, Tesla has ambitious goals in artificial intelligence, one of which is to use its Dojo supercomputer to train AI models that support its Fully Self-Driving (FSD) software.
Wall Street analysts believe Tesla’s artificial intelligence and supercomputers could achieve similar success to Amazon’s AWS cloud services, which could become Tesla’s huge source of non-automotive revenue.
Musk once held a large stake in Tesla, but sold much of it to finance his widely criticized acquisition of Twitter (now X) in 2022, diluting his holdings in Tesla from about 22% to 13%. Wall Street initially reacted negatively to Musk’s tweet, with the stock falling more than 2% early Tuesday, but quickly recovered and closed stable.
Tesla has lost nearly $100 billion in market value since the start of this year, and Musk’s calls for more shares through salary and changes in the direction of artificial intelligence have investors wanting to wait and see.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors: “It is no secret that all AI projects, from Dojo to Optimus, FSD, to various robot taxis and other robot developments, remain internal to Tesla. , which is also the key to our optimism.”
“(In our view) Wall Street currently views Tesla as a disruptive technology leader, and it would be a good bet for Tesla if Musk eventually goes down the path of creating a new company (separate from Tesla) for the next generation of intelligence projects artificial. . A hard blow.”
Ives noted that litigation over Musk’s previous compensation is ongoing in court and that a new compensation package for Musk could be on hold. The plaintiff shareholders argued that Musk’s previous compensation package was too high and a waste of company resources.
The other big problem with Musk’s request for more shares is that he is asking for more control over the company (basically higher pay) when the CEO is supposed to have shareholders’ interests in mind, giving him negative impressions and opinions .
Tesla’s board has also been criticized in the past for being too lenient on Musk and for having too many seats filled by Musk supporters, including his brother Kimbal Musk and others who have co-invested in Musk’s other ventures, such as SpaceX .
Musk argued that he would agree not to be paid more if it gave him more control through a dual-voting structure, but acknowledged that changing Tesla’s share class structure is a consideration given the company’s law. Delaware governing Tesla.
Other prominent Wall Street figures said Musk’s idea was inappropriate.
“That’s not how corporate governance works,” Third Point founder and activist hedge fund manager Dan Loeb said in response to Musk on X.
(Translated by Yahoo Finance)
2024-01-18 06:04:01
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