After completing the largest-ever initial public offering (IPO), SpaceX is now drawing market attention over the possibility of a merger with Tesla. If the two companies combine, Elon Musk, who leads both, would own a mega tech company with a $4 trillion (6,102 trillion won) market capitalization.
According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 17th, Wall Street and Silicon Valley are floating the possibility of a merger between Musk's space company SpaceX and electric-vehicle maker Tesla. If the merger goes through, a mega tech company spanning artificial intelligence (AI), space, satellite communications, electric vehicles, robots, and energy would be born.
Musk effectively controls SpaceX and is also Tesla's largest shareholder. Because of this, industry watchers say that if Musk wants it, pushing the merger itself would not be difficult. SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said in a recent CNBC interview, "If you combine SpaceX and Tesla, Musk's life could get a little easier," adding, "There is a clear synergy between the two companies."
In fact, the two companies are already working closely together. They are jointly pursuing the construction of the AI Semiconductor plant "Terafab" and the AI software project "Macrohard," and Tesla has supplied SpaceX with hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of batteries and vehicles over the past two years. Musk's AI company xAI was also integrated with SpaceX early this year, further strengthening cooperation between the two companies.
If a merger happens, Musk's business scope would expand beyond rockets and launch vehicles to Starlink satellite internet, AI model development, Autonomous Driving robotaxis, Humanoid Robot, solar, data centers, and the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The industry calls this the "Musk Empire" or the "Elon, Inc." scenario.
However, the merger process could also trigger resistance from minority shareholders and potential lawsuits. That is because, with Musk effectively controlling both sides, conflicts of interest could arise if the transaction terms are set to favor one company.
Experts, however, say it will not be easy for shareholders to block a merger under Texas corporate law, where Tesla and SpaceX are based. In Texas, holding at least 3% equity is currently required to bring a lawsuit against management. Given Tesla's current market capitalization of about $1.5 trillion (2,287.35 trillion won), opposing shareholders would need to jointly hold at least $45 billion (68.6025 trillion won) worth of shares.
Charles Elson, the founding director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said, "Musk has now risen to a position where he can do almost anything he wants."
The market is also focusing on the business synergies between the two companies. In particular, if the space data center SpaceX is pursuing becomes a reality, there is a view that they could secure competitiveness in AI against OpenAI and Anthropic.
Tasha Keeney, an analyst at U.S. asset manager ARK Invest, said, "If Tesla's semiconductor and data center build-out capabilities combine with SpaceX's space transportation technology, they could gain a strong edge in the race to build space data centers," adding, "Overall, a merger between the two companies is a sufficiently meaningful scenario."