Investing.com -- Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk ordered Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) to redirect chips intended for the electric vehicle giant to his social media company X and his artificial intelligence start-up xAI, according to CNBC.
The chips were slated to help Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) evolve into a stronger player in AI and robotics. However, the diversion could potentially delay Tesla's acquisition of processors worth $500 million by months, CNBC said.
Citing internal emails circulated among Nvidia's senior staff, the business news channel also said Musk's prediction earlier this year that Tesla will expand its procurement of Nvidia's active H100s to 85,000 from 35,000 "conflicts with bookings" data. H100s are the flagship AI-optimized chip made by Nvidia, the California-based group that has become a focal point of a boom in enthusiasm over the nascent technology.
A separate statement from Musk that Tesla would spend $10 billion in 2024 on "training and inference AI" was also reportedly rebuffed by Nvidia staff. They said the estimate "conflicts" with both bookings and fiscal year 2025 financial forecasts, CNBC reported.
Musk appeared to confirm CNBC's report on Tuesday, saying on X that "Tesla had no place to send the Nvidia chips to turn them on, so they would have just sat in a warehouse."
He added that "[t]he south extension" of its gigafactory in Texas is "almost complete," noting that this facility will house 50,000 H100s for the training of Tesla's full self-driving technology.
Musk has previously said that he would feel uncomfortable expanding Tesla's presence in AI without having at least 25% voting control of the firm. He currently owns roughly 13% of Tesla's shares.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley said shareholders "should be prepared" for Tesla to "significantly" slow down or curtail its direct investment in advanced AI efforts if Musk does not achieve his 25% voting stake.
Oliver Gray contributed to this report.