How a SpaceX and Tesla Merger Would Reshape Musk’s AI Empire

In brief

• Elon Musk said Tuesday that SpaceX and Tesla have each formed special committees of independent directors to study a merger, though no terms have been agreed.
• A combined company worth roughly $3.5 trillion would own the Grok chatbot, X, Starlink, the Terafab chip project, the Starmind orbital data center plan, and Tesla's robotaxi and Optimus businesses.
• Any deal needs the backing of 50% of all outstanding Tesla shares, which Musk called "quite a high hurdle," and Tesla's annual meeting is set for December 3.

Elon Musk said Tuesday that the boards of SpaceX and Tesla have each formed special committees to study merging his two biggest companies, a deal that would put rockets, electric cars, humanoid robots, a social network and the Grok chatbot inside a single corporation worth roughly $3.5 trillion.

“I do think there’s a lot of merit to combining the companies as we are pretty much in the superintelligence singularity,” Musk said on SpaceX’s third-quarter earnings call. The singularity is Silicon Valley shorthand for the point where AI outsmarts humans and starts improving itself faster than anyone can keep up.

He then listed what the two companies would share: “superintelligence software, chip design, the Terafab obviously, robotics, mass-to-orbit with the Starmind constellation, connectivity.”