On the day of a historic IPO, SpaceX’s president is already hinting at a Tesla merger: ‘That might make Elon Musk’s life a little easier’

On the day of Space X’s highly anticipated IPO, president Gwynne Shotwell hinted at a move many analysts increasingly expect—that Elon Musk’s two public companies will someday merge to form a Musk empire. In an interview with CNBC, she said a megamerger “might make Elon’s life a little easier, actually.” “There’s no question that there’s synergies between Tesla and Space X in our futures, definitely. There’s a convergence of a kind of what we’re all trying to accomplish in the future,” Shotwell added in the interview. Shotwell didn’t elaborate on the specific synergies that exist between Tesla and SpaceX, but the two companies are already collaborating in some areas, including jointly running Musk’s planned $55 billion “Terafab” facility, which will produce chips for robotics and space travel. SpaceX has also previously spent millions on Tesla technology, including $506 million worth of Tesla Megapack power cells and $103 million on Cybertrucks for SpaceX facilities. Musk has a history of combining his companies. In 2016, Tesla shelled out $2.6 billion worth of shares to acquire SolarCity, a solar energy company run by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive, in which he had a 22% stake and served as chairman. Later, after buying social media website X, formerly Twitter, he merged it with his AI company xAI in a deal valued at $50 billion. In February, SpaceX acquired xAI and X. As SpaceX makes history with its IPO Friday, Shotwell noted that combining Musk’s two public companies may not happen in the near term: “Right now I’m focused on keeping the lights on here.” Still, Shotwell’s comments lend more evidence that a merger between the two companies could come in the future. Some analysts already see the tie-up as inevitable. Wedbush senior equity research analyst Dan Ives claimed in a note earlier this week that merging the two companies would be a “holy grail” move that would allow Musk to control more of the AI ecosystem. The Tesla bull sees more than an 80% chance they