The world’s richest man confirmed this week that Tesla and SpaceX are exploring a merger. Together, the companies are worth around $3.5 trillion (€3.1 billion), making it potentially the largest merger ever.
It would end a series of deals linking Elon Musk’s companies, and the goal is to complete it while Donald Trump is still president of the United States, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
A merger between Tesla and SpaceX would be the final chapter in a story that began a decade ago, when Musk began bringing his companies together.
In 2016, Tesla bought SolarCity, a solar panel installer run by his cousins, a deal that was only upheld by a Delaware court after years of litigation.
In March 2025, his AI start-up xAI swallowed X, the former social network Twitter, acquired for 44 billion dollars (39.1 billion euros) in 2022.
In February this year, SpaceX absorbed xAI, in a deal valuing the rocket maker at $1 trillion (€890 billion) and the AI company at $250 billion (€222 billion), ahead of SpaceX’s IPO.
Four months later, SpaceX was listed on Nasdaq, raising $85.7 billion (€76.3 billion) in the largest IPO in history.
Seen together, the deals appear to be part of a long-term plan to consolidate Musk’s businesses into a single publicly traded group. Musk himself spoke of “increasing overlap” between Tesla and SpaceX during an earnings conference call in July.
On Tuesday, Musk told analysts during SpaceX’s earnings conference call that the two companies had established committees made up of independent board members to study a merger. He called it a “good idea”, although admitting it felt like “tap dancing through a minefield”.
Why a business
Musk says AI will decide which direction both companies take.
They are already jointly developing Terafab, an AI chip factory in Texas, while Tesla’s driverless cars and Optimus humanoid robots could benefit from the computing power SpaceX is working to build, including planned data centers in orbit.
The numbers also match.
SpaceX posted its first quarterly profit since its listing, earning $4.4 billion (€3.9 billion) as its revenue jumped 161%, but its capital expenditures reached $19.6 billion (€17.4 billion) during the quarter, mainly in AI.
In contrast, a day later, Tesla announced that its net profit had fallen 43% to $787 million (€700 million) on flat revenue of $28 billion (€24.9 billion), with deliveries falling 2%. In a merger, SpaceX’s increased revenue could help offset Tesla’s numbers.
Merging the companies would also allow Musk to run all of his operations under one roof, moving engineers and resources between the companies without disclosure or lawsuits over related party deals.
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