Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, was reported to have pushed for shipments of Nvidia AI processors originally intended for Tesla to be redirected to his social media platform, X, which he had purchased two years ago. However, Musk responded to the report, explaining that Tesla would have had difficulty handling the shipment as it was seeking to increase its order of Nvidia’s H100 chip from 35,000 to 85,000 units as part of a $10 billion expenditure plan for “combined training and inference AI.” Reports indicated that Nvidia senior staffers discussed Musk’s desire to redirect chips originally meant for Tesla to X, and in exchange, original X orders of 12,000 H100 chips slated for January and June were to be redirected to Tesla. Musk’s comments regarding the increased orders and the $10 billion in AI spending were also mentioned in communications from December and late April.
Musk explained that Tesla had no place to use the Nvidia chips, and the expansion of Giga Texas was almost complete, and it would house 50,000 H100 chips for Full Self-Driving training. Musk stressed the importance of every car eventually having autonomous capability for safety, convenience, and enjoyment. The communication regarding the Nvidia chips surfaced around the time when Musk’s $56 billion pay package was set to be voted on at the upcoming Tesla Shareholder Meeting. This has led to some shareholders questioning his commitment to the company, while others are in favor of ratifying his massive payout.