July 25 (Reuters) - Tesla said on Friday it had

received a number of shareholder proposals regarding the

company's plan to invest in CEO Elon Musk's artificial

intelligence startup xAI.

Musk ruled out a merger between Tesla and xAI earlier in

July, but said he planned to hold a shareholder vote on

investment in the startup by the automaker.

The proposals come amid significant funding activity for xAI

this year. The startup completed a $5 billion debt raise

alongside a separate $5 billion strategic equity investment,

Morgan Stanley said last month.

Musk has pursued an integration strategy across his

business empire, with xAI acquiring social media platform X in

March for $33 billion to enhance its chatbot training

capabilities, while also integrating the Grok chatbot into Tesla

vehicles.

The potential investment discussion comes as Tesla faces

various challenges, including Musk's political activities, which

have impacted demand for its electric vehicles and triggered a

22% drop in its shares this year.

"Shareholders are welcome to put forward any shareholder

proposals they'd like," Musk said on Tesla's quarterly earnings

call on Wednesday.

Tesla, which will hold its annual shareholder meeting on

November 6, said it would only include one proposal on each

topic in its proxy statement, in accordance with the SEC rules.

Earlier this month, the board set July 31 as the deadline

for the submission of shareholder proposals to be included in

the proxy statement.