Elon Musk has instructed the transfer of thousands of smart chips manufactured by Nvidia and intended for Tesla to the social media company X, according to emails from the chip manufacturer obtained by CNBC.
Reports suggest that this move may delay Tesla’s acquisition of $500 million worth of processors by several months.
It is expected that Tesla will store Nvidia’s AI chips, the H100, to support its transition to a leading company in artificial intelligence and robotics, as stated by Musk.
Earlier this year, Musk stated that “Tesla” plans to increase its acquisition of H100 chips from 35,000 to 85,000 units by the end of this year.
Later, in a post on X, Musk announced that Tesla plans to invest up to $10 billion in joint training and inference using artificial intelligence.
Emails sent by Nvidia employees and obtained by CNBC Channel indicate that Musk is exaggerating the importance of Tesla’s purchases of AI chips to shareholders. These emails also indicate that many of these processors are now being directed to X and xAI.
A memo from Nvidia issued in December stated, “Elon Musk gives priority to deploying H100 chips on the X platform instead of Tesla, redirecting around 12,000 H100 chips originally designated for Tesla to the X platform. The original orders for the X platform consisting of 12,000 H100 chips scheduled for January and June are also being redirected to Tesla.”
Nvidia employees noted that Elon Musk’s comments on X platform posts contradict reservations.
In a post on the X platform, Elon Musk pointed out that Tesla cannot currently accept Nvidia chips because the company’s factory in Austin has not been completed yet.
Musk also estimated that Tesla may spend between $3 billion and $4 billion on Nvidia’s AI chips in 2024.
Musk’s rising AI company xAI is competing with OpenAI and Google in innovating beneficial uses of generative AI and large language models.
Last month, the company announced a $6 billion funding round commitment to deliver advanced products and infrastructure to support them.
