Elon Musk said he supports the idea of merging Tesla with SpaceX, speaking during SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. A combined company would be worth roughly $3.5 trillion and bring together artificial intelligence, space exploration, and electric vehicle manufacturing.
"Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes," Musk said. He noted that both companies have formed special committees of independent directors to review the idea at the request of shareholders. Musk added that he cannot take part in those talks because he is a conflicted party.
Deal Not Certain
Musk listed several areas where the two companies could work together, including superintelligence software, chip design, the Terafab, robotics, connectivity, and launching mass to orbit with the Starmind constellation. Still, he warned against assuming a deal will happen.
"Some people out there assume that a SpaceX and Tesla merger is a certainty, and I think that would be overstating it," he said. The special committees have not agreed on terms for any transaction, and Musk said there is no guarantee they will.
He also pointed to a high bar for shareholder approval. On Tesla's side, a deal would need a 50% vote of all shares, not just the shares that are voted. "And that's quite a high hurdle to try to achieve," Musk said.
A merger would place Tesla in the same corporate group as SpaceXAI, formerly known as xAI, which develops Grok. It would also join the social media platform X, which SpaceX acquired in February.
SpaceX AI Revenue Jumps Ninefold
Musk's comments followed SpaceX's third-quarter earnings report. Revenue rose 161% from a year earlier to $14.6 billion. The company's "Super Intelligence" AI segment brought in $7.6 billion during the quarter, an 830% increase from a year earlier, making it SpaceX's largest source of revenue.
SpaceX said the growth came from new cloud services agreements and its acquisition of Cursor. It also cited wider use of its Grok AI model by businesses and consumers.
Combined Bitcoin Holdings
A merger could also combine two large corporate Bitcoin holdings. SpaceX reported holding 18,712 Bitcoin as of June 30, according to its quarterly filing. Tesla held 11,509 Bitcoin on the same date. Together, the two companies would hold 30,221 Bitcoin.
That total would make a combined company the sixth-largest public Bitcoin treasury company, ranking ahead of crypto exchange Bullish.
For now, no merger agreement exists. Any deal would still need terms approved by the special committees and backing from a majority of all Tesla shares.
