Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, expressed his reluctance to expand the company’s AI and robotics leadership without securing at least a 25% voting share, which is nearly twice his present ownership. In a recent statement on the social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, Musk conveyed his preference to develop products independently of Tesla unless he acquires a significant yet non-dominant stake in the automaker.

I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned.

Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2024

Musk has been a vocal proponent of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” technology and humanoid robot prototypes, although the company’s primary revenue comes from car sales. Analysts have identified Tesla’s technologies, such as the Dojo supercomputer for AI training, as key valuation factors, with predictions of a potential $600 billion market value increase.

Currently holding about 13% of Tesla’s shares after selling a portion in 2022 to fund his acquisition of Twitter, Musk has also shown openness to a dual-class share structure to achieve the desired voting control, despite being informed of its infeasibility post-IPO.