Tesla extends deadline for Australian battery material deal
The agreement, which originally required Syrah to deliver all its test batches of battery-grade material from its Louisiana processing plant to Tesla by May 31, has been extended to February 9.
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News.com.au
11 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Pentagon inks contracts for Musk's xAI, competitors
The Pentagon announced contracts on Monday with multiple leading US artificial intelligence firms including Elon Musk's xAI, which has faced intense scrutiny in recent days over anti-Semitic posts by its Grok chatbot. Each of the contracts to xAI, Anthropic, Google and OpenAI have a ceiling value of $200 million, the Pentagon's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) said in a statement. The awards will enable the Department of Defense "to leverage the technology and talent of US frontier AI companies to develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas," it said. The contract with xAI comes just days after the company was forced to apologize again for controversial posts by its Grok chatbot. After an update on July 7, the chatbot praised Adolf Hitler in some responses on the X social media platform, denounced "anti-white hate," and described Jewish representation in Hollywood as "disproportionate." xAI apologized for the extremist and offensive messages, and said it had corrected the instructions that led to the incidents. The release on Wednesday of Grok 4, the latest chatbot version, was almost met with scrutiny after it appeared to consult Musk's positions on some questions it was asked before responding. The contract between xAI and the Department of Defense comes even as Musk and President Donald Trump have publicly feuded in recent weeks. Musk, a top backer of Trump's most recent presidential campaign, was entrusted with managing the new agency known as DOGE to massively slash government spending under the current administration. After ending his assignment in May, the South African-born entrepreneur publicly criticized Trump's major budget bill for increasing government debt. The president and the businessman engaged in heated exchanges on social media and in public statements before Musk apologized for some of his more combative messages. - 'Critical national security needs' - The government and the defense sector are considered a potential growth driver for AI giants. Musk's xAI announced on Monday the launch of a "Grok for Government" service, following a similar initiative by OpenAI. In addition to the Pentagon contract, "every federal government department, agency, or office (can now) purchase xAI products" thanks to its inclusion on an official supplier list, xAI said. Meta meanwhile has partnered with the start-up Anduril to develop virtual reality headsets for soldiers and law enforcement. OpenAI had previously announced in June that it had secured a Defense Department contract with a ceiling of $200 million. "Establishing these partnerships will broaden DoD use of and experience in frontier AI capabilities and increase the ability of these companies to understand and address critical national security needs with the most advanced AI capabilities U.S. industry has to offer," said the CDAO statement on Monday.
The Age
28 minutes ago
- The Age
Elon Musk looks to raid his empire for billions
What does an entrepreneur do when he has one company that is bleeding cash and another sitting on a pile of it? He, of course, shifts cash from one to the other. It gets more complicated when the company that has the cash is listed and the one that needs it isn't, which is why Elon Musk says that he will seek shareholder approval for his privately-owned artificial intelligence business, xAI, to access to $US37 billion ($56 billion) of cash and near-cash sitting within his listed electric vehicle and humanoid robot entity, Tesla. How much of that cash does he have his eye one? Last year Musk asked the users on his social media platform, X (which merged with xAI earlier this year), whether Tesla should invest $US5 billion in xAI. About two-thirds of the respondents were in favour of investing. Whether Tesla's investors would share that view is another question. Their company has its own issues, notably plunging sales due partly to Musk's politicisation of the Tesla brand after his stint heading the controversial Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration and his subsequent falling out with Donald Trump, but also because Tesla's vehicles are being challenged by cheaper and more sophisticated EVs from China and Europe and even other US manufacturers. Tesla's sales in the June quarter slumped 13 per cent – it produced about 60,000 fewer vehicles in the quarter than for the same period last year. Loading The company is also facing the withdrawal by the Trump administration of tax credits for EVs, worth up to $US75000 per vehicle, that have helped support Tesla's sales in US, while also withdrawing carbon credits whose sale to other companies to help them meet emissions requirements has been a very significant source of revenue for Tesla. Musk seems unconcerned about the downturn in sales, although he's more than antsy about the withdrawals of tax incentives. He's adamant that the future of Tesla is in robotaxis and robots, although Tesla has only recently started on-road, heavily controlled, trials of its robotaxis.
Sydney Morning Herald
28 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Elon Musk looks to raid his empire for billions
What does an entrepreneur do when he has one company that is bleeding cash and another sitting on a pile of it? He, of course, shifts cash from one to the other. It gets more complicated when the company that has the cash is listed and the one that needs it isn't, which is why Elon Musk says that he will seek shareholder approval for his privately-owned artificial intelligence business, xAI, to access to $US37 billion ($56 billion) of cash and near-cash sitting within his listed electric vehicle and humanoid robot entity, Tesla. How much of that cash does he have his eye one? Last year Musk asked the users on his social media platform, X (which merged with xAI earlier this year), whether Tesla should invest $US5 billion in xAI. About two-thirds of the respondents were in favour of investing. Whether Tesla's investors would share that view is another question. Their company has its own issues, notably plunging sales due partly to Musk's politicisation of the Tesla brand after his stint heading the controversial Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration and his subsequent falling out with Donald Trump, but also because Tesla's vehicles are being challenged by cheaper and more sophisticated EVs from China and Europe and even other US manufacturers. Tesla's sales in the June quarter slumped 13 per cent – it produced about 60,000 fewer vehicles in the quarter than for the same period last year. Loading The company is also facing the withdrawal by the Trump administration of tax credits for EVs, worth up to $US75000 per vehicle, that have helped support Tesla's sales in US, while also withdrawing carbon credits whose sale to other companies to help them meet emissions requirements has been a very significant source of revenue for Tesla. Musk seems unconcerned about the downturn in sales, although he's more than antsy about the withdrawals of tax incentives. He's adamant that the future of Tesla is in robotaxis and robots, although Tesla has only recently started on-road, heavily controlled, trials of its robotaxis.
