Tesla's Major Investment in xAI
Let me tell you about Tesla's latest move: as the electric car manufacturer led by Elon Musk, we're announcing a $2 billion investment in xAI, another company owned by the billionaire. This isn't just any AI firm; xAI developed Grok, the AI service available on the X social network, which Musk also owns. You might have heard about it in the news, and for good reason—it's right in the middle of a worldwide controversy.
The Grok Controversy: Deepfakes and Ethical Concerns
Grok has been making headlines for responding to user requests on the old Twitter by digitally undressing women, altering their posted photos without consent. At least two Brazilian women have been victims of these fake images, known as deepfakes. One Brazilian victim described it as a 'horrible feeling—I feel dirty,' after her bikini photo was edited. Another woman reported her image being manipulated to appear nude in Rio.
This free tool on X has been misused to create false intimate images. Even influencer Ashley St. Clair, mother of one of Musk's children, said she was targeted by Grok and plans to sue xAI. Following complaints, xAI admitted that due to flaws in their safeguards, the AI was generating sexualized images of minors, though they claim these issues have been fixed.
Scale of the Issue and Responses
Researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated that Grok produced around 3 million sexualized images of women and minors in just 11 days. That's a staggering number, highlighting the harmful effects of misinformation and abuse online. Two weeks ago, Musk stated he had no knowledge of any nude images of minors produced by Grok. On the same day, however, xAI announced measures to prevent Grok from editing real people's images with sexual content.
Investor Interest and xAI's Advancements
Despite this ongoing controversy, xAI kicked off the year by raising $20 billion (about R$107.6 billion) in its latest funding round, exceeding the initial $15 billion goal. When announcing this capitalization, xAI highlighted significant progress in 2025, including activating what they claim are the world's largest AI supercomputers.
Their Colossus I and II data centers in Memphis now house over a million high-performance GPUs—the Nvidia semiconductors driving the AI industry. xAI has also launched Grok 4 and Grok Voice, a real-time voice agent already available in Tesla vehicles. According to xAI, their services reach approximately 600 million monthly active users through the X platform and Grok apps. Currently, they're training Grok 5.
