this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website 82 points 3 months ago (3 children)
[–] Laser@feddit.org 47 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Well, not really. Twitter was his own private property that he bought with borrowed money secured against his Tesla shares. xAI on the other hand is financed by investors whose money he used to bail himself out at a price he made up himself since Twitter is no longer publicly traded. So this is, in my opinion, misuse of investor funds; the picture would be true if xAI used how own money to do this, but no.

On one hand,I think this is serious fraud. On the other, my understanding for anyone investing into his companies is very limited, there are so many red flags on so many levels.

[–] gencha@lemm.ee 10 points 3 months ago

To understand Musk/Trump investors, imagine the investment to be an NFT.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

yes its a perfect setup for a payoff.

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[–] viking@infosec.pub 5 points 3 months ago

The investors have a seat in the board of directors in xAI, and for a shareholder deal you must have board approval. So at least more than 50% of the directors support this, meanings he is legally in the clear.

[–] sporkler@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I suspect the government(s) that represent the bulk of the funds behind xAI threw the money out to continue operating exactly as he has been.

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[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 39 points 3 months ago

So hell get taxed for exchange of speculative assets right?... Right?!

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is this so the loans secured with X stock can't be called in, forcing Elon to sell the collateral to pay back the loan?

Sure seems like a bullshit business move to retain control of Tesla.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

X is a private company, there's no stock. It was secured with Tesla stock.

[–] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 28 points 3 months ago (2 children)

His juvenile enthusiasm for the letter X is so ten-year-old boy with sunglasses.

[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 32 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 20 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

“X” is also 88 in ASCII. 88 is a Nazi reference to “heil hitler”. Big surprise.

https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/88

[–] capybara@lemm.ee 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 7 points 3 months ago

I did not know these things, but makes sense…

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

He called the tesla models S3XY, and the 3 is only because Ford was gonna sue him if he used E.

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[–] Kwyjibo1@lemmy.myserv.one 19 points 3 months ago

Musk's slight of hand shell game to keep from losing his shirt if his Tesla stock keeps dropping and his X financiers come looking for money.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

using AI hype to finance X loans?

[–] alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 3 months ago (8 children)

Correct.

It's actually a smart move.

The dumb money are those pouring hundreds of billions into the AI hype. This is .com bubble on steroids.

And sure, AI obviously is becoming an important market, but it will not be the current leaders who will dominate the tech. Like the internet, it's just too easy to catch up for competitors. Pouring $100B into AI today will only mean you lose out to the $1B startup in 2 years. The incumbents will go broke.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I don't understand how this gets him free of the loans. My understanding is that he financed $14B of the Twitter purchase with loans secured against Tesla stock. That $14B worth of twitter stock was then owned by Musk and he also had a loan.

This was an all stock purchase, so xAI stock was exchanged for equivalent value of Twitter stock (keep the old name to keep it clear). Now Musk's twitter stock that he bought with the $14B will become the equivalent value of xAI stock, and he still has the loan that bought it in the first place.

Unless $14B of stock has been sold somewhere to repay the loans they still exist.

Edit: just an addendum. Personally I think stock-for-stock trades should be illegal. Force the parties to move through cash. There's too much smoke and mirrors hidden by skipping steps. In this case xAI should have had to raise the capital to purchase X. If it can do it through selling stock so be it, but it's not a wholely internal affair.

[–] alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 months ago

To know how exactly it works, we'd need to know details that aren't public.

But just speculating, if the creditors value the combined xAI+X higher than just X, then there is room to transfer the loan to the new company and away from Tesla.

But whatever the details are, Elon isn't an idiot when it comes to money. He definitely has advisors who cooked up the optimal way to profit from the AI hype.

And the essence of that is that Tesla shareholders will be left holding the bag, while Elon utiizes X/xAI to capitalize on the hype.

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[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 months ago (5 children)
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[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 months ago

This might have the opposite effect he wants, xAI investors no longer have a clean AI investment and are now linked to a failing social media platform.

xAI is already losing bigtime vs other AI companies, this just makes it even less attractive.

[–] merdaverse@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt)

Lol, he actually think the value of Shitter is still $45B, as when he bought it. That's cute.

[–] Redditsux@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 months ago

Are the authorities aware? It's very illegal to sell exctacy in the US.

[–] athairmor@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I’m surprised the Twitter investors would approve this. Their worthless Twitter stock is now worthless xAI stock. How does that help them?

I guess they’ll try to take xAI public with a massively overpriced IPO.

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[–] random_character_a@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (9 children)

So the bullshit machinery is now AI driven bullshit machinery. What if AI finds it too vile and deletes itself.

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