Emails show Elon Musk diverted a $500 million shipment of Nvidia chips intended for Tesla to the X

• Elon Musk redirected $500 million into AI processors from Tesla to X, CNBC reported.

• The move could delay Tesla’s development of autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots.

• The news comes before shareholders vote on Musk’s contested $55 billion proposed pay package.

Elon Musk embezzled $500 million worth of AI processors intended for the automaker, according to correspondence from Nvidia employees obtained by CNBC.

Instead, he uploaded them to his social media platform X, the report, published on Tuesday, said. he said.

“Elon prioritizing deployment of X H100 GPU cluster in X versus Tesla, redirecting 12k shipped H100 GPUs originally slated for Tesla to X,” said a December Nvidia memo, according to the report. “In return, the original X orders of 12k H100s scheduled for January and June will be redirected to Tesla.”

Business Insider has not reviewed the documents. Nvidia declined to comment.

The decision to prioritize X comes later Musk said Tesla would double the number of H100s by the end of the year on Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call. The chips, which cost more than US$40,000, leverage AI technologies such as ChatGPT and Anthropic.

The billionaire also previously said he would transform the EV giant into a “leader in AI and robotics” and posted on X that Tesla would spend about $10 billion this year on “blended training and AI inference.” Delaying GPUs could delay the development of Tesla’s supercomputers by months, hampering progress on autonomous cars and robots.

It turns out that Musk may have overestimated Tesla’s capabilities. An April email from Nvidia said its comment about Tesla’s Q1 call and its post about spending $10 billion on AI “conflicts with reservations,” according to the report. The email also referenced Tesla layoffs and said the job cuts could further delay an “H100 project” at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas, the report said.

Musk previously said in a post in X that he was “uncomfortable” expanding the EV company’s AI and robotics capabilities without 25% voting control. He said he would “prefer to build products outside of Tesla” until he has that control.

The story continues

Tesla’s chip diversion shows that Musk is keeping his word and highlights the ongoing tension between Musk and shareholders who question his commitment to the electric vehicle company.

An analyst asked Musk during Q1 earnings call if the CEO is too scattered. Musk also owns and is CTO of X and serves as CEO of SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company.

This leak comes at a critical time, just before Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting on June 13. The news adds to the pressure as Musk faces an already contentious battle over his proposed $55 billion pay package, with several investment firms advising against him. At the beginning of this year, a Delaware judge blocked the package, citing concerns about Musk’s undue influence over the board due to his close ties to several members.

The executive compensation plan, first approved in 2018, involves a grant of 12 tranches of stock options over 10 years, which vest when Tesla reaches specific milestones. When the company reaches each goal, Musk gets shares equal to 1% of the shares outstanding. Tesla said it achieved all 12 goals by 2023.

The automaker argued that the salary package is necessary to maintain Musk’s focus on Tesla. In a series of adverts and messages to shareholders, Tesla continued to argue that the plan is critical to Tesla’s success and a matter of adequately compensating Musk, who does not receive a salary.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article at Business Insider