The chief executive of US electric car maker Tesla, Elon Musk, says the company will invest about 10 billion dollars this year in developing artificial intelligence programs essential for autonomous driving.

Musk posted on X on Sunday that "Tesla will spend around $10B this year in combined training and inference AI, the latter being primarily in car."

He added, "Any company not spending at this level, and doing so efficiently, cannot compete."

Tesla posted its first quarterly revenue decline in four years in the January-March period due to price competition with Chinese rivals and slowing demand.

Net income plunged 55 percent on the year.

The company has decided to cut 10 percent of its workforce.

Musk has said Tesla will unveil self-driving taxis in August.