Tesla Caps Employee Spending on AI Tools at $200 Per Week to Control Rising Costs

Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer led by Elon Musk, has imposed new restrictions on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools by its employees. The company has issued an internal memo limiting AI-related expenses to $200 (approximately ₹19,000) per employee per week, with the policy taking effect from July 6. The decision comes after the company's AI token usage surged, leading to significantly higher operational costs.

Tesla had previously encouraged employees to make extensive use of AI platforms and even introduced an internal platform called Bottle Rocket, integrating services such as OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Cursor. The company also developed a dashboard to monitor AI token consumption. Although the initiative reportedly improved productivity, rising infrastructure and operational expenses prompted Tesla to introduce spending limits. Several global companies, including Uber, Walmart, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, have already adopted similar measures to optimize AI-related costs.