4 ms·
SpaceX's president is floating a Tesla merger as the company begins trading
- Cider9986 5mo agoIt makes me question reality when Tesla is just as overvalued and yet has maintained its value for years.
- qaq 5mo agoWell given dual class shares in SpaceX Elon will get full control of Tesla for free aside from all other benefits ...
- sailfast 5mo agoNot 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)
- hmokiguess 5mo agoright, accelerated vesting
- jacobgorm 5mo agoSeems very likely, related: https://electrek.co/2026/05/31/a-spacex-tesla-merger-could-trigger-musks-1t-pay-package-automatically/ https://electrek.co/2026/05/31/a-spacex-tesla-merger-could-t...
- jimmydoe 5mo agoElon is such an honorable person that he will end up not do it, and we will worship him for that.
- matthewfcarlson 5mo agoI cannot tell if this is sarcasm or genuine. I am horrified that it could be either almost as much as I am by the fact that I can't tell.
- jimmydoe 5mo agoI don’t like /s as i think it ruins the sarcasm :)
- rawgabbit 5mo agoThat was my first thought. A underhanded way for Elon to further enrich himself.
- Zigurd 5mo agoIf you're gonna float a $2 trillion bubble, why not make it 3.
- LightBug1 5mo agoDon't be ridiculous. 4.
- outside1234 5mo agoThinking too small. With grandma's pension we can get to at least 5.
- hmokiguess 5mo agoI guess these days the saying is "if you aim for Jupiter you land on Mars"
- NickC25 5mo agoor 4, or 5, or whatever makes Elon more money than he knows what to do with.
- t1234s 5mo agomeh.. 10T or your not even trying.
- NickC25 5mo agoSomething here stinks....and I'm not sure what it is. But my god, the corruption here is staggering.
- dgellow 5mo agoMy 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
- V__ 5mo ago> 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." Accomplish a ludicrous valuation above all else?
- lenerdenator 5mo agoOf course. That's the one and only goal. 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.
- outside1234 5mo agoWhat do you want? Him to act in the shareholder's interest or something?
- dgellow 5mo agoHe's a shareholder, he acts in his own interest, therefore he's acting on a shareholder's interest!
- IshKebab 5mo agoYeah 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.
- parineum 5mo agoBatteries and solar panels in space/mars/moon.
- roryirvine 5mo agoTesla 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.
- bhouston 5mo agoIt was called here on Hacker News by SilverElfin back in early February (4 months back), and I remember because I agreed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46863028 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46863028
- cactusplant7374 5mo agoPeople have been talking about this for much longer than four months.
- MattRix 5mo agoyup, and elon hinted at it in podcast interviews during the past year as well
- gegtik 5mo agopeople, please, can we find out who said it first
- spikels 5mo agoThis guy joked about it in 2013: https://x.com/Loh/status/362036803517169664 https://x.com/Loh/status/362036803517169664 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. https://www.roic.ai/quote/TSLA/transcripts/2016-year/2-quarter https://www.roic.ai/quote/TSLA/transcripts/2016-year/2-quart... That the earliest mentions I could quickly find.
- spikels 5mo agoIt'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. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/05/the-case-for-elon-musk-to-combine-tesla-with-spacex.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/05/the-case-for-elon-musk-to-co...
- whatever1 5mo agoSee? If you throw infinite amounts of money at someone, they can always be successful
- Iolaum 5mo agoDoes this mean Telsa would get out of the S&P index, or that SpaceX would come in? Hope for the former.
- outside1234 5mo agoThis is a good question and I think it depends on who acquires who. If we wants control and SpaceX acquires Tesla, then I think it drops out until there is profitability.
- the_sleaze_ 5mo agoThey relaxed the rules for SpaceX already, it's in almost immediately the IPO
- youtubeuser 5mo agoS&P rejected SpaceX.
- the_sleaze_ 5mo agoI stand corrected, S&P did not shorten its rules to allow SpaceX after all. I was under the impression the Google compute deal made it so it could. Nice!
- MattRix 5mo agono, that’s Nasdaq not S&P
- the_sleaze_ 5mo agoThey'll both be in the S&P, and combined would represent roughly 5%
- btilly 5mo agoSo 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.
- fennecfoxy 5mo agoLook 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 ($$$).
- criddell 5mo ago> 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.
- btilly 5mo agoThis is a take on Elon that I cannot agree with. I get it. I know how much people want to hate him. And how much fuel he has given for that. But he's very talented, and really puts in the work. According to people I personally know who work with him closely, he's the real deal. Doesn't stop him from being an asshole. But you get the bad with the good.
- Fricken 5mo ago
- albatross79 5mo agoDegenerate scammers
- baggachipz 5mo agoThis 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.
- outside1234 5mo agoJust keep changing the goalposts so all of rubes investing in these junk stocks can keep drinking the koolaid. Also, so Elon can raid the company treasury.
- redox99 5mo agoOn 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.
- kklisura 5mo agoIt 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...
- waltbosz 5mo agoWhat's the end goal of merging everything into X ?
- paul7986 5mo agoSo he controls Y and Z!
- koolba 5mo agoThis 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.
- tristanj 5mo agoThe 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.
- tsimionescu 5mo agoIt'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.
- s1artibartfast 5mo agoThis seems like a narrative construction detached from reality . Tesla owners can just sell and buy spacex. Its not like tesla is down.
- tristanj 5mo agoSelling 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.
- yanis_t 5mo agowell that was fast
- josefritzishere 5mo agocars and spaceships... totally the same thing.
- baggachipz 5mo agoThey're all like "Tesla is an ai company now!!1!" https://www.autoblog.com/news/tesla-is-an-ai-company-now https://www.autoblog.com/news/tesla-is-an-ai-company-now
- whazor 5mo agoIt would be like Samsung: Samsung does semiconductors, smartphones, displays, TVs, appliances, batteries, shipbuilding, construction, insurance, hotels, and even theme parks.
- teeray 5mo agoYet another conglomerate
- _DeadFred_ 5mo agoIt would be like the old General Electric.
- stuxnet79 5mo agoIt is the Asian model of capitalism. David Oks did a great article about this focusing on Japanese firms in particular [1] [1] https://davidoks.blog/p/why-japanese-companies-do-so-many https://davidoks.blog/p/why-japanese-companies-do-so-many
- Ekaros 5mo agoActually 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.
- kklisura 5mo agoIf 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.
- matthewdgreen 5mo agoHave you met Tesla shareholders?
- tsimionescu 5mo agoA 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.
- qwerpy 5mo agoWhere 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.
- tsimionescu 5mo agoThey've sold 20k last year, 35k the year before that. Not only are they selling poorly, the market is quickly shrinking.
- karp773 5mo agoIt will probably be an attempt to sneak SpaceX into S&P500 through the Tesla backdoor. Someone needs those 401k monies.
- stephc_int13 5mo agoThe merge could be named Musk Industries, quite fitting considering his hubris and association with comic books.
- Gys 5mo agoMuskX
- juanani 5mo ago[dead]
- slowmovintarget 5mo agoBoth companies are based in Texas, it's Tesla + SpaceX... TexLax?
- eagerpace 5mo agoKnow 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.
- rkagerer 5mo agoInteresting bit at the end for anyone unaware: 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.
- xiphias2 5mo agoIt 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). He wants full control back.
- Cider9986 5mo agoThey're gonna have to update this website. Already have to drag in order to finish. (https://wealth.ronnycoste.com/ https://wealth.ronnycoste.com/)
- xiphias2 5mo agoIt's very strange web site, something is off with the math, $9B cost of chemotherapy went away too fast.
- goldcd 5mo agoI 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.
- ant6n 5mo agoInteresting. So if there's a merger of SpaceX and Tesla, he gets back more Tesla.
- goldcd 5mo agoPrecisely. 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..
- glimshe 5mo agoI 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.
- Zigurd 5mo agoI'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.
- kjreact 5mo agoI’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?
- sidibe 5mo agoElon 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.