Tesla’s Gigafactory, Texas, outside Austin as seen on April 2, 2024. The Austin-based automaker disclosed an agreement in April 2026 to acquire an AI hardware company in a deal valued at $2 billion in Tesla stock and equity awards. (Jay Janner \/ American-Statesman)<\/p>\n
After touting its artificial intelligence efforts during\u00a0its latest earnings report<\/a>, Tesla Inc. appears to be investing even more in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n The Austin automaker agreed this month to acquire an unidentified AI hardware company for up to $2 billion in Tesla common stock and equity awards, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About $1.8 billion of that is subject to certain service conditions and the successful deployment of the company\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the deal and it\u2019s unclear what the company intends to use the hardware for. Tesla\u2019s recent AI initiatives include completing the final chip design of its next-generation AI5 inference processor and software improvements with a new version of\u00a0Full Self-Driving<\/a>, which launched this month.<\/p>\n The filing also said that construction is in progress for ongoing expansion of Tesla\u2019s facilities, equipment and tooling related to the manufacturing of products along with AI-related assets that have not been placed in service.<\/p>\n During an earnings conference call Wednesday, CEO\u00a0Elon Musk stressed that the company is in an investment phase with an expectation that 2026 capital expenditures will exceed $25 billion. Tesla\u2019s annual capital expenditures were $8.5 billion in 2025 and $11.3 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n Some of Tesla\u2019s latest investments, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said, will go toward AI-related initiatives involving its robotaxi service and its Optimus humanoid robot.<\/p>\n Gigafactory Texas will be the site of at least a portion of that spending. Tesla has said it will begin its so-called\u00a0Terafab project<\/a>\u00a0with a research chipmaking fab on its campus east of Austin. Tesla will also construct an\u00a0Optimus factory at Gigafactory Texas<\/a>, which Musk said this week will\u00a0have an annual production capacity of 10 million robots. The first large-scale Optimus factory will be in Fremont, Calif., replacing the Model S and Model X lines previously at the plant.<\/p>\n Tesla\u2019s previous acquisitions notably included\u00a0solar power manufacturer SolarCity<\/a>. Musk\u2019s cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded the company, and Musk was chairman of the board. The most recent acquisition was in 2023, when Tesla acquired and later sold wireless charging startup Wiferion.<\/p>\n