> There's no question that there are synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures," she said. "There's a convergence of what we're all trying to accomplish in the future."
I think there are other reasons and am capable of critical thought. A variety of synergies have been discussed publicly for at least 9 years. This article lists several of them.
Yeah I'm definitely questioning what synergies there are between Tesla and SpaceX. What do electric cars and rockets have in common? Are they going to me a rocket powered car? Put a Tesla on the moon?
The only thing I can think that makes any sense at all is Teslas coming with Starlink terminals built in. That seems like a stretch though.
Tesla claims to be pivoting away from cars in favour of producing their Optimus robots. And SpaceX's IPO valuation appears to be predicated on them being an AI datacentre company.
So I guess the "Musk plays 4d chess" view would be that there are obvious synergies between humanoid robots and AI.
Ugh. Honestly, that makes it seem worse than the purely cynical financial engineering takes.
Tesla has a problem. Its sky-high valuation is based on the potential upside from “visionary” sci-fi future programs. However, the narratives are losing credibility.
Once upon a time, Robotaxi and Optimus sounded like visionary futuristic ideas. However:
We now live in a world where Waymo exists, and autonomous taxi hasn’t proven to be as socially transformative as promised. No huge latent market exposed. Aslo, Tesla is lagging behind.
We now live in the world where Unitree exists, and is shipping! Again, Tesla is on the back foot. The technology no longer seems quite so futuristic. Disruptors usually disrupt from down-market— that puts BYD cars and Unitree robots in the better position.
With a merger, the joint sci-fi future proposition is colonies on Mars. That one is likely to stay in the future for a long time. From a stock valuation point of view, the goal is for the promise to be forever in the future. That way, the investor thinks the upside is still to come. Once the promise is delivered, it’s time to cash out.
Fantastic write up. To what degree is all of capitalism actually built on this premise? Why can't I buy the same damn running shoes I bought in 2015? Why can't I buy a dumb TV?
Yeah, it's all scifi posturing. Same with the "Optimus will begin colonising Mars in 2026" line that they were still pushing just a few months ago.
There's perhaps a chance that some part of it might happen someday, but right now the main thing is to distract attention from Tesla's lack of model development and SpaceX's much-vaunted AI business being based on reselling datacentre space at a loss.
> What do electric cars and rockets have in common?
Electric motors? I imagine there are differences but the super heavy grid fins are electrically actuated (I have heard these motors were sourced from Tesla, though I don't have a great reference for that on hand). The thrust vectoring is also electrically actuated... again, I imagine there are differences of what's on the rocket and what's in the cars... but there are cross over areas of research and engineering.
Also, in a hand-wavy way, rovers share some traits with electric cars; again electric motors, wheels, steering, etc.
So while I don't believe a traditional car company is exactly trying to build space hardened/ready equipment in the normal course of business... it's not as far fetched as some combinations could be.
Why? Well, as Cory Doctorow said at the talk I attended earlier this week, they do this for the same reason a dog licks his balls: because they can and no one will stop them.
It's been discussed for at least a decade. A Wall St analyst even wrote a note suggesting it back in 2017 that was widely covered in the media. Most people think is very likely to happen eventually.
A Wall St analyst was asking questions about it on Tesla earnings calls in 2016 and later wrote a research note about the idea. Been widely discussed since.
I was wondering why he got so many voting shares in SpaceX. Then worked out it was just enough to get overall control of a combined company (assuming SpaceX remains at or above IPO valuation and Tesla stays under his beloved 420).
Suspect it also means all pumping from now on out will be Space X, whilst Tesla will be "less bullish" than normal.
Whilst he owns a lot of Tesla, he doesn't have majority control - and has to get shareholders to vote on stuff like "Whether Elon should be given ridiculous bonus packages" and similar.
He's previously said both that he wants a single company and that he needs complete control of it.
Merge of companies at values I mentioned wouldn't give him over 50% ownership, but gives 51% of the votes
(Although I'd suggest you check my maths, people on the internet are sometimes wrong..)
I've also ignored the Tesla bonus plan - as it could be argued (and I'm sure it will be), that if it's Tesla that consumes SpaceX, then he's increased the market cap of Tesla. This then triggers new Tesla shares to be minted and given to him (last bonus plan), which both moves both more cash and voting out of the hands of the public into his.
Some might suggest this sounds like outright fraud - but his little fans will undoubtedly cheer this all through again..
Under the terms set out in SpaceX's filing, Musk commands a supermajority of voting shares — more than 80% — and retains the right to sign off even on any board action that could result in his ouster.
It makes sense, he stopped contributing to Tesla significantly long time ago (he redirected the NVIDIA GPUs that were supposed to go for Tesla self driving to X.ai).
It would be like Samsung: Samsung does semiconductors, smartphones, displays, TVs, appliances, batteries, shipbuilding, construction, insurance, hotels, and even theme parks.
Actually no. Asians have common decency to run separate businesses as separate companies. Samsung Electronics does a lot. But it really doesn't have direct hand in other business. Even if there is some ownership in them.
On the one hand, there's definitely some overlap between Tesla and SpaceX. Optimus, FSD, xAI, Orbital AI, Tesla Solar, Terafab, and so on. It genuinely does make sense.
On the other hand, large part of it is probably securing control of the company with super voting stocks.
It only makes sense if Tesla does not have technology to jump the finish line of Optimus and Robotaxis. If they do have technology and can release those products, then SpaceX is only needed to improve margins on them as they can vertically integrate. I don't think they have technology...
I made sure to steer clear of Tesla and now SpaceX across my investments. It's not that Musk is an incompetent leader or the companies are bad, but his reality distortion field creates valuations and schemes designed to extract as much money as possible from investors rather than to enrich them.
I'm not a Elon hater because of his politics. There are plenty of rich fucks out there with much more malevolent political views, though the Germans know that salute meant. I started making TikTok's about Elon because he tried building a rocket with agile methodologies more suitable for a smartphone app. On top of that, both starship and cyber truck are vanity projects constrained by his ego to embody his vision of what those things should be. He stopped listening to the smart people he has hired.
He overwork his people and burns them out. If he wasn't such an egotistical twat about his psroduct visions, starship might be flying commercial payloads and cybertruck might not be the worst pick up truck ever made.
So yeah, Elon is an incompetent leader. The companies are bad because you'll burn out if you work there.
I’ve always thought that Elon’s “genius” is that he is able to convince smart/capable people to be very loyal to him. I doubt any of his inner circle would comment about him on HN, but I wonder if my theory is correct?
Not sure why this didn't occur to me earlier. It's always been the play, and it's probably ALSO why many Tesla investors went along with this IPO. It gets him control of Tesla again without paying him all those shares and without the lawsuits (though if I'm honest any decent anti-trust regulator would prevent it so this will likely need to happen in the next two years (while little to no competent governance is allowed)
This has been the plan all along. Tesla is the only one of any of these companies who makes money (but dwindling) and by getting Elon majority shares of SpaceX, he can then gain majority control of Tesla.
Know how they grew Xai and built the data centers so fast? They rerouted Tesla chip orders. That business was supposed to be built inside of Tesla, but it was extracted. Tesla still needs it.
This is all because Musk doesn’t want to have two different corporate email addresses. The corporate synergies are secondary to the convenience of checking just one mailbox.
My guess is that it's all a scheme for Elon to get more control over Tesla. In a healthy system all those acquisitions and self-dealing would be blocked right away
A nice tidbit from the article, for people who think that Tesla Cybertrucks are actually selling decently well:
> SpaceX spent $131 million on Cybertrucks in 2025, according to SpaceX's IPO filing.
Per their numbers (20k cars sold in 2025) and the list price (70-100k), this means that almost 10% of all Cybertrucks sold by Tesla in 2025 were bought by another Elon Musk company.
Where I live (Orange County, California) they are selling decently well. There’s one parked in every street. I guess when you have a high Asian immigrant population, they ignore the politics and just buy what makes sense for them.
Elon or his cousins will have to start a new company with some fresh funding soon he is running out of opportunities to merge one company into another together with ever worse financials and ever better valuations.
Maybe it can be a teleportation company? Imagine the TAM for that.
The Tesla/SpaceX merger rumors feel like classic cope created by Tesla bagholders who feel they are missing out on the SpaceX IPO.
Let’s be real: Elon has mentally checked out of Tesla. His heart and focus is at SpaceX, and long time Tesla holders have watched this slow-motion abandonment happen over the past few years. Just look at the lack of projects/innovation coming out of Tesla, and compare that to what's happening at SpaceX. Innovation has slowed to a crawl at Tesla. Tesla shareholders desperately want in on Elon's next project, and the only way they can protect their investment is if SpaceX buys them out.
Selling Tesla to buy SpaceX would incur a taxable event, and holders would need to pay capital gains, decreasing the size of their investment. If SpaceX acquires Tesla, there's no taxable event.
Also, part of this is their own self-delusion to discourage each other from selling to buy the shiner new Elon project.
It's incredible to think that there are still people who think Elon Musk is really involved in any positive way in the technology his companies' employees produce.
If they would to merge, Elon would have total control over this new entity (> 50%). Why would Tesla shareholders vote to relinquish their rights? I've been listening to some of the _Tesla cultist_ - as I call them - and they are open and excited about merging with SpaceX for one reason only: they want to keep Elon happy. Jfc.
So now that Tesla is clearly crashing, fold it into the more successful SpaceX and get to roll the dice again?
Classic Elon. This is the same thing that he did to rescue a failing Solar City by making it part of Tesla.
It takes a lot to get where Elon is. But it also takes a willingness to double down over and over again on big bets. And he himself will be the first to admit that the most likely outcome of his strategy was bankruptcy.
And it still is the most likely outcome; but now it wont be Elon losing 99% of his worth, it will be every pension and retirement, every index fund, every investment portfolio that 'must buy' into this simply because of the scale, regardless of the individual investors' best interests.
After losing 99%, Elon would still be worth 10B, but now the risk is with the investors? What is 1% remaining out of the portion of their individual net worth committed to one (or more) of these types of index funds out of a need for "safety?"
Oops, that's $100 remaining for every 10K invested; that's roughly the cost of a single steak dinner at a mid-grade chain restaurant.
I'm sorry, I just cant imagine that this really ends well. There simply isn't anything approaching reality in the profit:risks at SpaceX.
Look at how many fuck ups there are with basically no repercussions; the dude is still rich.
Is any more proof needed that if you ride the coat tails of real engineers and have a propensity for screwing other people over that that is what success really is for a lot of people in business?
Just look to the number of huge companies with founding members or integral early members being forced out just as things are getting good ($$$).
> Look at how many fuck ups there are with basically no repercussions; the dude is still rich.
I read something that put it into perspective for me. Musk's current net worth is ~ $1 trillion. He could mess up and destroy 99% of his wealth and he would still be worth $10 billion.
If he did something stupid again and lost 99% of the remaining 1%, he would still be worth $100 million.
It would take him screwing up a third time and losing 99% once again to be down to a middle-class net worth of $1 million.
Accomplish a ludicrous valuation above all else?