Elon Musk said he is “actively considering” merging Tesla and SpaceX, calling the idea a “good” one, according to the BBC’s account of a Tuesday call with financial analysts. Musk added that special committees at both companies are examining the proposal.
“The special committees have not reached agreement on terms of any transaction and there’s no guarantee that they will,” Musk said on the call, per the BBC. He described himself as a “conflicted party” as CEO of both firms and likened even commenting on the idea to “tap dancing through a minefield.”
Shareholders hold the key
Musk said a merger would ultimately be decided by investors. At least 50% of Tesla shareholders would need to approve, which he called “quite a high hurdle to achieve,” the BBC reported. Following his remarks, the BBC noted SpaceX shares rose about 8% after hours, while Tesla gained roughly 2%.
Why combine now
Musk said a full merger could make sense given work across chips, artificial intelligence, and software, per the BBC. The outlet also reported that before SpaceX went public earlier this year, it acquired xAI and the platform X, and that Tesla and SpaceX recently launched “Terafab,” a joint chip-manufacturing effort.
The scale
The BBC put Tesla’s value at roughly $1.5 trillion and SpaceX’s at about $2 trillion. On those figures, a tie-up would rank among the largest mergers in history.
Business backdrop
Starlink revenue rose to $5.2 billion in the three months to 30 September, up from $3 billion a year earlier, the BBC reported. SpaceX’s newer cloud-compute business—serving companies including Anthropic and Google—generated $7.5 billion in the same period, up from $813 million last year, according to the outlet.
SpaceX’s overall revenue for the first nine months of the year jumped to $27 billion from $13.7 billion, but the company still recorded a $1.1 billion loss over that span; it reported a $4.4 billion profit for the most recent quarter, the BBC said.
Security scrutiny note
The BBC reported that SpaceX provides a secured satellite network for governments through its Starshield business and that it is facing scrutiny over claims Ukraine’s access was limited, leaving it vulnerable to Russian strikes. According to the BBC, President Donald Trump denied that he or Musk ordered any slowdown, while Musk suggested the U.S. government might have been behind restrictions.
What’s next
Musk emphasized there is no agreement on terms and no assurance a transaction will occur. Any merger would depend on the special committees and shareholder votes, per the BBC. Tesla is due to report its own quarterly results on Wednesday, the outlet noted.
