SpaceX in Merger Talks with xAI

https://www.reuters.com/world/musks-spacex-merger-talks-with-xai-ahead-planned-ipo-source-says-2026-01-29/

57•m-hodges•1h ago

Comments

mandeepj•1h ago

They both are privately held by the same owner! So, with whom are they talking? :-)

RIMR•1h ago

Is this an actual question? Because it seems kinda obvious that one person can have a majority stake in two companies without those companies being the same company.

The better question is whether or not this merger makes any sense.

dugidugout•1h ago

I'd be quick to assume the ":-)" in this context indicates it is not an actual question.

kwanbix•1h ago

Musk writes a letter from his ceo@spacex.com email and he reads it from his ceo@xai.com account. And viceversa.

Tuna-Fish•1h ago

The lawyers are the ones talking, and they have to come up with a fair valuation.

If SpaceX pays too much for it, other SpaceX shareholders have a case against SpaceX leadership. If xAI accepts an offer that is too low, other xAI shareholders have a case against xAI leadership. Given that the leadership is basically the same people, they are very well incentivized to come up with a valuation that is as fair as possible.

And this is not just theoretical, Musk has already been sued successfully once on a similar case, when his companies gave out too much free support to the boring company.

edmundsauto•1h ago

Otoh, he is clearly impulsive and doesn’t think the rules apply to him. I am guessing, if one approach benefits him personally the most, there will be enormous pressure to achieve that outcome.

CamperBob2•57m ago

Otoh, he is clearly impulsive and doesn’t think the rules apply to him.

They don't, so why shouldn't he think that way?

a_t48•1h ago

Tesla engineers being lent out right after the Twitter buyout to eval the codebase was one of many reasons I won’t work there. So unserious.

ortusdux•48m ago

I was imagining a boardroom reenactment of Geri's Game

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geri%27s_Game

hex4def6•1h ago

Two socks and two sets of googly eyes are required for this exercise. Attach googly eyes to socks. Insert hands in socks.

lenerdenator•53m ago

Now I'm imagining Musk in a k-hole just staring at his hands in sock puppets for hours.

limagnolia•1h ago

Musk is the majority owner, but he is not the only owner. So the discussion is probably amongst senior leadership from both companies and probably involves other significant owners.

mwigdahl•56m ago

"Have your Grok call my Grok!"

georgeecollins•49m ago

But they don't have all the same owners. If I own company 2/3 of company A and it is worth $0, and I own 2/3 of company B I can't force company B to buy company A for $1. The company B shareholders will be upset and could sue.

Maybe this is a good deal for shareholders of SpaceX and xAI. But then maybe it isn't a good deal for one set of shareholders. I have no idea, but I would love to be a shareholder in SpaceX and would not want to be a shareholer in xAI. Totally depends on the price of course.

RIMR•1h ago

Oh good, orbital rockets and simulated child porn under the same roof. I hate this timeline.

bikelang•1h ago

Why would you pollute SpaceX’s valuation by coupling it with a toxic asset like xAi?

ep103•1h ago

save it from the ai bubble collapse?

swarnie•1h ago

The scary people who lent the money to silence Twitter actually need paying one day. Lord knows you aren't doing that with any other product in the portfolio.

rchaud•18m ago

Favors can always be offered in lieu of payment. Preferential access to powerful friends or political candidates, a stock tip here and there....

cheonn638•49m ago

> Why would you pollute SpaceX’s valuation by coupling it with a toxic asset like xAi?

SpaceX IPO will save the current xAI/Twitter bag holders

WarmWash•40m ago

You don't have to spend long looking at Tesla's investors to realize they are exactly the kind of investors you want. You don't have to do anything but make promises, and when those promises fall through, just promise you'll deliver even more in the future.

ra7•1h ago

Tesla invests $2B in xAI, SpaceX merges with xAI. It's just blatant self-dealing all the way down to artificially prop up valuations.

Zenul_Abidin•1h ago

Elon Musk in negotiation with himself.

What does the process look like, exactly?

ryanisnan•1h ago

I'm not totally clear, but it probably involves the ol' stranger.

themafia•1h ago

You do whatever you feel like.

You get sued.

You drown the court in expensive lawyers.

Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

TacoCommander•1h ago

A lot of ketamine is involved.

mlmonkey•1h ago

Elon doing some financial engineering to engineer a 1T valuation for himself? :-D

kiernanmcgowan•1h ago

MechaHitler now has space launch capabilities

dwroberts•1h ago

I don’t understand the point of this stuff, Musk already has infinite money why does he need to play shenanigans with shuffling things between his various holdings?

pinewurst•1h ago

Some combination of never enough and the necessity of keeping the hot air balloon of his finances airborne.

I'm just waiting on the final merger with Tesla. The Tesla earnings release mentioned a big battery deal done with xAI plus the previous Cybertruck deal with SpaceX so you know it's coming.

pavon•1h ago

Musk has a lot of wealth, but to turn that into money he would have to sell his stock in his companies, causing him to lose majority ownership. Merging the money-losing xAI with the profitable SpaceX would allow him to use revenue from SpaceX to fund xAI without diluting his ownership.

colechristensen•1h ago

to please one or another set of shareholders, to keep up his compensation, and to prop up bad decisions

Kon5ole•1h ago

He doesn't have infinite money, he is allowed to borrow infinite money thanks to the valuation of his holdings, which lately are weakening on the fundamentals.

Hence the shenanigans.

Mountain_Skies•54m ago

Maybe he wants to go down in history as the first trillionaire. His wealth exploded during the pandemic, from about $25 billion to over $700 billion today. The trillion-dollar mark is in sight. He might be willing to sacrifice some long-term wealth if it means juicing the number now, so he has what seems like a permanent place in history.

woah•1h ago

> Last year, SpaceX agreed to invest $2 billion in xAI as part of the startup’s $5 billion equity fundraising, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

Sometimes you just need to get the founders in a room together to hash things out and magic can happen.

prossercj•4m ago

To be fair, it is no small feat to get all of Elon's personalities to agree with each other

swarnie•1h ago

Are the talks just Elon with a sock puppet on each hand while Grok runs in the background doing the voices?

delduca•1h ago

Sounds like schizophrenia.

jeffwask•1h ago

He's really shuffling the X purchase debt around.

timy2shoes•55m ago

Probably in a desperate attempt to stall margin calls on the debt, which would cause him to have to sell his Tesla stock, which might start the freefall in stock price, creating a negative feedback loop and cratering his empire. See also the news about Tesla shifting manufacturing to robotics.

pityJuke•1h ago

So, somehow, Twitter will end up being (partially) public again!

What are we doing here

bhewes•1h ago

This makes total sense his DC in Memphis will be his Houston. That DC will control all space flights and space robots.

sjg1729•46m ago

This could happen without a merger

bhewes•37m ago

One c suite is much cheaper and easier to control then two. Reminds me of many reversed mergers in oil and gas.

brightball•1h ago

This makes sense based on his recent talk about putting solar powered AI data centers in space. I was expecting this announcement soon and it makes perfect sense if that's the goal.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/bezos-and-musk-race-to-bring-data-c...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/technology/space-data-cen...

pavel_lishin•58m ago

> Reuters could not determine the value of the deal, its primary rationale, or its potential timing.

segmondy•52m ago

grifters gonna grift

jmyeet•44m ago

Buying Twitter was a financially disastrous decision. It had reportedly lost at least 80% of its value [1]. The loans were secured against Tesla shares so there was the real risk of a margin call and a forced sell off.

And then along came xAI where a bunch of people gave Elon money and he "merged" Twitter and xAI, basically siphoning off billions of the investment funds ti bail himself out. If securities law had teeth, he probably should've gone to prison for this.

At the ssame time, why weer people giving this charlatan man-child billions to invest in AI?

The problem is they weren't buying AI. IMHO they were buying a seat at the table and an influence in the administration, a bit like the Saudi sovereign fund's "investment" in Jared Kushner.

Thing is, this isn't the first time he's done this. Elon used one of his companies (Tesla) to buy another of his companies (SolarCity) who was essentially insolvent but owed a lot of money to a third of Elon's companies (SpaceX). There was a lawsuit but it was dismissed. If you're sufficiently wealthy, the law basically doesn't apply to you [2].

I knew before even clicking on this that the justification would be orbital data centers (and it is). They make no sense becaus eof launch costs, cooling and cosmic rays and solar radiation.

Is this the continuation of the Twitter buyout shell game?

[1]: https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/business/elon-musk-twitter-x-...

[2]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

iammjm•15m ago

He did acquired a lot of power and influence through it though. He can now shape and influence public discourse worldwide by pulling the algorithmic strings, amplifying information he likes and suppressing information he doesnt like.

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