The president and COO of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell, recently followed the official Tesla account on the X platform. This action has fueled speculation regarding a potential merger between the two companies, although neither organization has issued an official statement regarding such a transaction.
Analysts offer varying timelines for a potential deal. Dan Levy of Barclays suggests an agreement could be reached before the Tesla shareholder meeting, which must occur by December 6. Conversely, Dan Ives from Wedbush Securities anticipates that any merger would not take place until 2027.
Shotwell's role is central to these discussions, as her responsibilities have expanded to include oversight of Grok and AI computing infrastructure projects. She noted that business integration between SpaceX and xAI is progressing faster than expected, with SpaceX personnel already supporting xAI management and engineering teams.
Financial ties between the entities are already established. Tesla invested $2 billion into xAI, resulting in SpaceX holding less than 1% of the company. Additionally, the firms collaborate on the Terafab chip project in Austin. Elon Musk holds approximately 20% of Tesla shares and controls 85.1% of the voting power in SpaceX.
Market attention is now focused on upcoming earnings reports, with SpaceX scheduled to release its second post-listing report on Tuesday, followed by Tesla on Wednesday. While shareholders have submitted questions regarding a potential merger via the Say platform, Musk has previously stated that such topics cannot be discussed during earnings calls.
