Elon Musk explores historic merger of SpaceX and Tesla

Chief executive officer Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that SpaceX and Tesla are actively exploring a potential merger, according to BBC News World, Al Jazeera, and the South China Morning Post. The BBC reported that special committees have been formed within both companies to evaluate the proposal. Al Jazeera noted that a tie-up between the two firms could create a corporate giant valued at more than $3 trillion, while France 24 reported that Musk floated the idea alongside SpaceX's latest quarterly earnings. [1][2][3][4][6]

Estimates of the combined entity's valuation vary across reports, with Al Jazeera citing $3.5 trillion and Engineering and Technology Magazine reporting $3.75 trillion. Musk stated that the potential merger has a lot of merit due to the companies' complementary work on artificial intelligence, according to Al Jazeera. However, the BBC and Al Jazeera reported that the special committees have not reached an agreement on terms, and any final proposal would still require approval from shareholders. [2][3][5][12]

Musk cautioned against treating the transaction as a certainty. BBC News World reported that Musk told financial analysts during Tesla's earnings call on Wednesday that calling the merger a certainty would be overstating things, quip-ping that he felt like he was tap-dancing through a minefield. That call followed a minor drop in Tesla's third quarter sales to $28.05 billion from $28.1 billion in the same period last year, BBC News World added. [1]

Musk is the chief executive officer and largest shareholder of both Tesla and SpaceX, and became the world's only trillionaire in June 2026. SpaceX operates aerospace manufacturing, satellite communications through Starlink, and an artificial intelligence unit, while Tesla manufactures electric vehicles and energy systems. [13][14]