Elon Musk reportedly owes quite a few of his employees $420
Elon Musk reportedly owes several employees at xAI $420 for providing personal tax information to train the AI model Grok. Despite the promise made earlier this year, the payments have not been received, and employees have expressed concerns about the lack of communication regarding the issue. The situation has raised questions about the appropriateness of sharing sensitive tax data with Musk and the motivations behind the $420 offer.
- ▪Elon Musk promised xAI employees $420 in exchange for their personal tax returns.
- ▪Payments for the promised amount have not yet been made, leading to employee inquiries.
- ▪The $420 amount references a popular weed joke associated with Musk's past controversies.
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Big Tech Elon Musk reportedly owes quite a few of his employees $420 xAI promised workers the money in exchange for tax information to train Grok. By Lawrence Bonk May 18, 2026 12:19 pm EST FotoField/Shutterstock Elon Musk owes a bunch of xAI employees $420, according to a report by Bloomberg. The CEO reportedly promised employees earlier this year he would pony up that amount of money if they offered up their personal tax returns as training data for Grok. Surprisingly, payments have yet to materialize. This was an attempt to improve Grok's capabilities ahead of the April 15 US tax deadline. Many people use AI chatbots to help with tax returns, despite the risks, but most opt for Claude or ChatGPT over Grok. The company is reportedly trying to reverse that trend.
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