Also Read: Musk’s woes: Tesla hit refresh on its EVs but it hasn’t worked That was when Musk urged Tesla shareholders to buy a faltering rooftop solar company in which he was chair, investor and creditor (his cousin was the CEO). At the time, Musk emphasized the centrality of solar power to Tesla’s mission and unveiled a seemingly ingenious product, the solar roof. Today, the solar roof is notable chiefly for its rarity in the wild and Tesla stopped bothering to report solar installations some time ago. On the other hand, SolarCity was afforded a graceful exit and Musk was repaid the money he had lent to it. From that highly specific viewpoint, despite SolarCity’s evident troubles, it was a great time for Tesla to buy. In this case, it appears Musk intends for Tesla to merely invest in xAI rather than buy it outright. There is scant insight into how xAI is doing financially, since it is privately held. We do know, however, that it issued $3 billion of secured debt, maturing in 2030, at the end of June with a coupon of 12.5%, currently yielding just over 12%. The rough 8 percentage points spread over Treasuries is in the same ballpark as triple-C rated bonds.That doesn’t suggest financiers are falling over themselves to fund xAI’s substantial cash burn, put at over $1 billion a month by a Bloomberg News report in June. Nor does another report that xAI turned to Space X, another Musk vehicle, for $2 billion.