Tesla will limit employee spending on artificial intelligence tools to $200 per week starting July 6. The policy change comes after some engineers used thousands of dollars in tokens each week. The cap excludes beta versions of xAI products.
Tesla informed staff of the new limit in an internal memo. The move follows months of efforts to increase AI adoption across the company, including dashboards that ranked employees by token use.
The policy requires approval for spending above the weekly threshold. It aligns with similar cost controls at Uber, Meta, and Walmart amid rising expenses from token-based AI services.
Tesla has released an internal AI tool called Nova and restricted access to external models on company devices. Leadership has tied the company's valuation to broader AI applications in vehicles and robotics.
Many engineers reportedly prefer other models over Grok despite internal encouragement to test xAI tools.
