The logo of Tesla is seen on a store in Paris, France, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
(Reuters) -Tesla said on Friday it had received a number of shareholder proposals regarding the company's plan to invest in CEO Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI.
Musk ruled out a merger between Tesla and xAI earlier in July, but said he planned to hold a shareholder vote on investment in the startup by the automaker.
The proposals come amid significant funding activity for xAI this year. The startup completed a $5 billion debt raise alongside a separate $5 billion strategic equity investment, Morgan Stanley said last month.
Musk has pursued an integration strategy across his business empire, with xAI acquiring social media platform X in March for $33 billion to enhance its chatbot training capabilities, while also integrating the Grok chatbot into Tesla vehicles.
The potential investment discussion comes as Tesla faces various challenges, including Musk's political activities, which have impacted demand for its electric vehicles and triggered a 22% drop in its shares this year.
"Shareholders are welcome to put forward any shareholder proposals they'd like," Musk said on Tesla's quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.
Tesla, which will hold its annual shareholder meeting on November 6, said it would only include one proposal on each topic in its proxy statement, in accordance with the SEC rules.
Earlier this month, the board set July 31 as the deadline for the submission of shareholder proposals to be included in the proxy statement.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Anil D'Silva)
