[adharmad]

What is the play here? Using money invested in xAI and its inflated valuation to bail out the X investors?

[toomuchtodo]

It bails out Elon and means his Tesla shares (borrowed against to purchase Twitter) won’t be liquidated as Tesla’s share price continues to decline, using xAI investor funds. He uses hype and sentiment (inflating valuations) in the capital markets to always stay slightly ahead of consequences.

[rayiner]

Tesla shares are higher now than they were when he closed on Twitter in October 2022.

[ivewonyoung]

Tesla shares are higher than when Twitter was acquired. 'Continues to decline' sounds like weasel wording that the media likes to use to push a narrative that doesn't exist.

Edit: Comment flagged for pointing out inconvenient facts, it's wild out there

[jimkleiber]

And now also uses government capture to dismantle regulatory agencies that would come after him for breaking the law.

[kypro]

Still, you have to give it to him, it works, and this has allowed him to do some incredible things beyond just hype.

What he's pulled off with xAI more recently is really quite incredible. And obviously this isn't first time Elon proved he can execute better almost anyone else.

I don't really have opinions on him as a person, but as a an entrepreneur you cant flaw him imo. He always finds a way to beat the odds.

[zitterbewegung]

That and the data that is a part of X can be used by the xAI team. I expect it will be in the TOS if it isn't there already.

"xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent."

[jsheard]

Weren't they already doing that? I recall before I bailed from X/Twitter they already added an AI training consent toggle, which silently defaulted to "I consent" for all existing users of course.

[sunaookami]

There is a setting (opt-out outside of EU, opt-in inside EU I think) that allows/forbids data sharing with X since Grok was released.

[jjfoooo4]

I don’t really see how X data, being riddled with spam and bots, is all that uniquely useful to an AI company. Even if it was, it’s not all that clear that access to data is a defensible moat.

[spiderfarmer]

I think any LLM that’s not trained on X data comes out ahead.

[javier2]

I suppose xAI could already use the data from X, but anyway. X is a cesspool of vile hate and bots. Why would you want to train a AI on that?

[quest88]

Why does that warrant an acquisition?

[HappySweeney]

To me it appears to be a way to pay his lenders without liquidating or collateralizing more Tesla stock.

[blueelephanttea]

So he can use the funds he raised for xAI to pay out the lenders for the initial Twitter purchase? Otherwise the lenders are just getting xAI stock (all stock deal) which I assume is illiquid?

[russdill]

Seems like anyone who has three "shares" of X now has 1 share of xAI+X, which by Musk's valuation is three times as valuable as X. Assuming the xAI share price is wildly inflated, it seems that the inflated valuation has devalued their actual holdings.

Eg, for an extreme example, if xAI is worth zero, their actual holdings are now a third of what they were.

[ajaimk]

Yes. He did it with Solarcity already.

[dashundchen]

Solar roofs was one of many scams.

And he scammed the taxpayers of New York State for a billion dollar factory to build solar roofs. Factory built, stock was pumped, no solar roofs though.

The puffery about waste and fraud is pure projection coming from a scammer like Musk.

[VirusNewbie]

Makes recruiting easier, better for the X employees as well.

[poniko]

Yes same setup as when Tesla bought Solar city .. one playbook he pours out of.