Musk Wants a $3.5 Trillion Tie-Up, but the Hard Part Has Just Begun
Musk Wants a $3.5 Trillion Tie-Up, but the Hard Part Has Just Begun
For months, Musk had been laying the groundwork. In July, he said there was “more and more overlap” between Tesla and SpaceX as both pushed deeper into AI and robotics. The companies had already announced Terafab, a joint semiconductor project aimed at supplying Tesla vehicles and robots as well as SpaceX’s planned AI satellites.
The idea gained heft after SpaceX’s latest results. The company reported $14.6 billion in third-quarter revenue, up 161% year on year, and $4.4 billion in net income, with its AI business emerging as a major growth engine. Against that backdrop, Musk told investors on Tuesday that Tesla and SpaceX had each formed special committees of independent directors to examine a possible combination.
His argument is straightforward: put rocket hardware, Starlink connectivity, batteries, chip design, autonomous vehicles and Optimus robots under one corporate roof. “I do think there’s a lot of merit to combining the companies,” Musk said, arguing that cooperation matters as the world approaches a “superintelligence singularity.” He amplified the position in a repost on X: “Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes.”
But Musk also stressed that this is not a done deal. Calling himself a conflicted party as chief executive and major shareholder of both companies, he said he cannot take part in the committee discussions. The committees have not agreed terms, and Tesla would require approval from holders of a majority of all outstanding shares — a threshold Musk called “quite a high hurdle.”
At current valuations, a combined group could be worth roughly $3.5 trillion and rank as the biggest merger ever. Supporters see faster resource-sharing and a more integrated AI supply chain; skeptics see a concentration of power around Musk, alongside potential U.S. national-security questions, scrutiny of Tesla’s China operations and a difficult path to Chinese regulatory approval.
The committees, not Musk’s enthusiasm, now determine whether the vision becomes a transaction.
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