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Elon Musk has invested $1 billion dollars into actors Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlbergs "un-woke" production company.

On April 24, 2024, Esspots.com published an article with the headline, "Breaking: Elon Musk Invests $1 Billion in Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's New Un-Woke Production Studio." The article posited that the billionaire wanted to support projects that aligned with this vision, and the studio was committed to "traditional values" and "non-woke" content.

The article said:

Musk, renowned for his innovative ventures in technology and space exploration, expressed his enthusiasm for this new creative endeavor, citing a desire to support projects aligned with his vision for cultural authenticity and creative freedom. The collaboration between Musk, Gibson, and Wahlberg represents a fusion of Silicon Valley ingenuity with Hollywood craftsmanship, aiming to challenge prevailing industry norms.

The decision to back this un-woke production studio underscores Musk's broader interest in disrupting traditional paradigms across various sectors. Known for his outspoken views on culture and society, Musk has frequently critiqued the prevailing narrative in mainstream media and entertainment, advocating for a return to more genuine, relatable storytelling.

The Facebook page associated with the website, SpaceX Fanclub, also shared a post with the same headline on April 21, 2024, adding the article in the comments section days later. Many commenters under the post believed what it was saying, with statements like, "You are a Good Man Elon. So is Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg."

(Facebook user SpaceX Fanclub)

However, the above story originates from a site that describes itself as satirical in nature. SpaceX Fanclub's introduction section states, "We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real."

Esspot.com's "About Us" page states:

Welcome to the US page of Esspots (A Subsidiary of SpaceXMania.com specializing in Satire and Parody News), your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States of America. Our team of writers and editors is dedicated to bringing you the latest and greatest in fake news and absurdity, all with a healthy dose of humor and satire.

On this page, you can expect to find all sorts of hilarious stories and parodies about US politics, culture, and society. From outrageous conspiracy theories to outlandish political stunts, we've got it all covered.

The site also has a disclaimer, which says:

Welcome to Esspots.com, a website that specializes in satire, parody, and humor. Before you proceed to read our content, we would like to emphasize that nothing on this website is real. All of the articles, stories, and commentary found on Esspots.com are entirely fictitious and created for the purpose of entertainment only.

This is not the first time we've covered related satirical stories from Esspots.com. The site has previously falsely claimed that Wahlberg and Gibson were starting a "non-woke" production studio while declaring "Hollywood is saved." It also falsely wrote that Wahlberg refused to work with Tom Hanks, saying the latter was a "woke creep."

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.

"About Us." Esspots, https://esspots.com/about-us/. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

"Disclaimer." Esspots, https://esspots.com/disclaimer/. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Izzo, Jack. "Mark Wahlberg Refused To Work with Tom Hanks on $65M Movie?" Snopes, 19 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/mark-wahlberg-refused-work-tom-hanks-woke/.Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Rascout-Paz, Anna. "Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson Are Launching 'Non-Woke' Film Studio?" Snopes, 4 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/gibson-wahlberg-non-woke-production/.Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Robin, Alex. "Breaking: Elon Musk Invests $1 Billion in Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's New Un-Woke Production Studio." Esspots, 21 Apr. 2024, https://esspots.com/breaking-elon-musk-invests-1-billion-in-mel-gibson-and-mark-wahlbergs-new-un-woke-production-studio/.Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

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Elon Musk Invested $1B Into Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg's 'Un-Woke' Production Studio? - Snopes.com

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xAI, Elon Musks 10-month-old competitor to the AI phenom OpenAI, is raising $6 billion on a pre-money valuation of $18 billion, according to one trusted source close to the deal. The deal which would give investors one quarter of the company is expected to close in the next few weeks unless the terms of the deal change.

The deal terms have changed once already. As of last weekend, Jared Birchall, who heads Musks family office, was telling prospective investors that xAI was raising $3 billion at a $15 billion pre-money valuation. Given the number of investors clamoring to get into the deal, those numbers were quickly adjusted.

Says our source, We all received an email that basically said, Its now $6B on $18B, and dont complain because a lot of other people want in.

Investors whove been lobbying to get into the deal for months hardly minded. Sequoia Capital and Future Ventures, the venture fund co-founded by Musks longtime friend Steve Jurvetson, are participating in the round.

Other participants are likely to include Valor Equity Partners and Gigafund, whose founders are also part of the inner circle of Musk, who famously blends the personal and the private. (Outreach to these investors went unreturned; xAI does not have a press function.)

Jurvetson sits on the board of SpaceX and was a director at Tesla until 2020. Gigafund co-founder Luke Nosek, who previously co-founded Founders Fund with investor Peter Thiel, was the first venture investor to write a check to SpaceX and has sat on its board since. Valor founder Antonio Gracias was among the earliest investors in Tesla; like Jurveston, hes a former Tesla director and is also on the board of SpaceX.

Our source said its not entirely clear to every other investor who is in the deal because of the way the commitments were garnered. Its a Zoom call and its just you and Elon and Jared [on the other side] at a table with some engineers.

The pitch, says this individual, is captivating.

xAIs marketing literature already makes clear that the outfits ambition is to connect the digital and physical worlds, but it may not be widely understood that Musk plans to do this by pulling in training data from each of his companies, which include Tesla, SpaceX, his tunneling outfit Boring Company, and Neuralink, which develops computer interfaces that can be implanted in human brains.

Of course, another of Musks companies is X. The social media platform has already incorporated xAIs months-old chatbot, Grok, into the platform as a paid add-on. Yet thats just one piece of what Musk tells investors will become a sprawling virtual cycle.

With Grok, for example, X is both a customer and provides Grok with massive distribution. Eventually (goes the pitch), Grok will be fed data from Musks other companies, helping it to master the physical world in potentially endless ways, starting with truly self-driving cars.

Another likely beneficiary would be Teslas humanoid robot, Optimus. Today the Tesla robot is still in the lab, but Musk told analysts on a call earlier this week that Optimus will be able to perform tasks in Teslas factories by the end of this year. Even if that timeline proves ambitious, these slick assistants may be able to do more and faster than previously imagined if Musks overarching vision plays out.

In the meantime, the most immediate beneficiary of xAIs burgeoning momentum may be X itself. Though the platform has become something of a toxic cesspool in the 1.5 years since Musk bought it and subsequently lost much of its value, Musk had already seen to it that X owns a stake in xAI, so it will benefit from whatever upside the AI outfit sees.

What it all means for OpenAI which became the fastest growing startup in history last year is an open question. Musk has had OpenAI in his crosshairs since the companys surge began, following the release of its ChatGPT chatbot.

Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015 and left its board in 2018 over disagreements about the direction of the outfit, which began life as a nonprofit and later evolved into a for-profit entity. Musk has since publicly harangued OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman and poked fun at the brand, proposing that it instead call itself ClosedAI.

Last month, when Musk open sourced the architecture of xAIs earliest chatbot Grok-1, meaning that anyone can now download and alter it, the move was another part of his ongoing campaign to distinguish his efforts from OpenAI, which has not shared its secret sauce with the world, and which Musk is now suing.

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xAI, Elon Musks OpenAI rival, is closing on $6B in funding and X, his social network, is already one of its shareholders - TechCrunch

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Elon Musk Needs Cheaper Teslas to Pay for Everything Else He Wants  The Wall Street Journal

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Elon Musk Needs Cheaper Teslas to Pay for Everything Else He Wants - The Wall Street Journal

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Tesla has hardly been keeping quiet as it prepares to announce earnings on Tuesday.

Shares in the carmaker are down in premarket trading on Monday after the company announced further cost cuts and a recall of its ballyhooed Cybertruck model over the past few days. These developments are the latest signs that Tesla is confronting its toughest stretch in years and many shareholders arent convinced that the company and its C.E.O., Elon Musk, are taking the right steps to address it.

The latest: During the weekend, Tesla cut prices of several models in China, the U.S. and Europe. The company also reduced the price of its driver-assistance software, known as Full Self-Driving (which doesnt actually allow for fully autonomous driving).

Those moves came a day after Tesla voluntarily recalled nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks over a faulty accelerator pedal that could get stuck.

Its all apparently keeping Musk so busy that he canceled a trip to India, during which he was expected to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announce plans to build a factory there.

The moves came after an event-filled week for Tesla. The company had already announced that it was laying off 10 percent of its work force and that it was asking shareholders to again approve a multibillion-dollar payout for Musk that a Delaware judge had voided.

Markets arent sure the carmaker is on the right track. The cost cuts are only the latest announced in recent months, as Tesla tries to reverse a sales slump while rivals are taking market share. Analysts are especially worried about softening demand in China, a wider E.V. slowdown in the U.S., and that the price reductions are hurting global profit without juicing sales.

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How Can Elon Musk Reassure Tesla Investors? - The New York Times

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Tesla's Earnings: Elon Musk's Future and Other Takeaways  The Wall Street Journal

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Tesla's Earnings: Elon Musk's Future and Other Takeaways - The Wall Street Journal

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