Elon Musk runs both companies. He is the biggest individual shareholder in both companies. And on October 20, 2026, he told investors he is not allowed in the room where the biggest deal of his career is now being discussed. During SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Musk confirmed that SpaceX and Tesla have each formed special committees of independent directors to review a possible merger — a combination that, at Tuesday's closing prices, would be worth roughly $3.5 trillion and would rank among the largest corporate mergers in history. Musk said he supports the idea and thinks there is "a lot of merit" in it. He also warned, in the same breath, that anyone treating it as a done deal is "overstating it."
That tension — the world's richest dealmaker backing a merger he cannot negotiate, for two companies he leads but does not fully control — is what makes this story so much bigger than a routine board announcement. Nothing has been agreed. No price has been set. No timetable exists. But the machinery of a deal is now formally running, and Wall Street spent Tuesday night trying to work out what a combined SpaceX–Tesla would even look like: rockets, satellite internet, electric cars, humanoid robots, social media and some of the world's most powerful AI, all under one roof.
Key Takeaways
- On October 20, 2026, Elon Musk confirmed on SpaceX's Q3 earnings call that SpaceX and Tesla have each formed special committees of independent directors to review a possible merger, created at the request of shareholders.
- Musk backs the idea — he said there is "a lot of merit to combining the companies" — but stressed that no terms have been agreed and a merger is not certain.
- Because Musk is a "conflicted party," he cannot take part in the committee discussions at either company.
- The announcement landed on a blowout SpaceX quarter: $14.6 billion in revenue, up 161% year over year, and $4.4 billion in net income, far ahead of Wall Street forecasts.
- The hardest hurdle is at Tesla, where Musk said a merger would need support from a majority of all outstanding shares — not just of the shares that vote.
- There is no claim form, no sign-up and no free shares connected to this news. Anyone offering one is running a scam.
What Musk Actually Said on October 20
The news came in response to a question about the long-rumored combination during SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call — only the company's second earnings report since going public earlier this year. Musk did not dodge it. "This is definitely kind of a question where I feel like I'm tap dancing through a minefield," he said, according to CNN's report of the call, "but I do think there's a lot of merit to combining the companies."
TechCrunch, which reported the committee details in full, noted how much firmer this was than Musk's position just a few months earlier. After SpaceX's blockbuster IPO, he had refused to offer any opinion at all, saying combinations could not be discussed on an earnings call and had to go through "the appropriate process." On Tuesday, he confirmed that the appropriate process has now started: both boards have formed special committees, made up of independent directors, at the request of shareholders.
Musk was equally clear about the limits. The special committees have not reached agreement on the terms of any transaction. No deal price has been set. And his own support, he stressed, does not settle anything: "I think some people out there assume that a SpaceX and Tesla [merger] is a certainty, and I think that would be overstating it. At the end of the day, the shareholders have to be supportive of this."
The Earnings That Set the Stage: SpaceX's Blowout Quarter
The merger talk would have dominated any earnings call. It landed very differently because of the numbers SpaceX reported alongside it. SpaceX brought in $14.6 billion in revenue in the third quarter, up 161% from a year earlier, and swung to a net profit of $4.4 billion after back-to-back quarters of losses earlier this year. Wall Street analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected net income of about $1.57 billion on revenue of about $12.9 billion. SpaceX instead reported earnings per share of 35 cents, versus the 14 cents analysts had forecast.
Just as striking was where the money came from. Reporting on the results, the New York Post noted that roughly $7.6 billion of the quarter's sales came from SpaceX's fast-growing AI division — its "Super Intelligence" segment — overtaking the roughly $5.2 billion generated by its Starlink-led connectivity business, which as recently as 2025 accounted for the majority of the company's revenue. In other words, the rocket company is increasingly an AI company that also launches rockets — a fact that sits at the heart of the merger argument. SpaceX shares jumped in late trading after the results and the merger comments, rising nearly 5% in the first wave of after-hours trade, while Tesla shares rose a little over 1%. We have covered SpaceX's AI ambitions before, including how Google is paying SpaceX $920 million a month for AI compute — the merger discussion is, in part, about who gets to own that business outright.
Why Musk Wants Them Together: AI, Robots and Chips
Musk gave his reasons on the call, and they were not about rockets carrying Tesla batteries or other simple synergies. "I do think there's a lot of merit to combining the companies as we are pretty much in the superintelligence singularity," he said, pointing to what the two companies could gain from cooperating on developing AI software, robotics, SpaceX's orbital AI data center project Starmind, and Terafab, the joint chip manufacturing project the two companies are already building together.
Read that list carefully, because it describes the combined company's real shape. Tesla brings mass manufacturing, a global fleet of AI-training vehicles, the Optimus robotics program and experience building its own AI hardware. SpaceX brings launch, the Starlink network, an orbital data center project and an AI division that just out-earned its satellite internet business. The argument for combining them is that the boundary between the two companies is already blurring — they share a CEO, shared AI projects and a joint chip fab — and that a merger would formalize what is already happening in practice. The argument against, which the committees now have to weigh, is just as obvious: shareholders in each company bought very different risks, and a merger forces rocket investors to own car margins, and car investors to own rocket risk, whether they want to or not.
The Governance Problem: Musk Cannot Sit in the Room
The most unusual part of this story is the process itself. Musk is chief executive of both companies and the largest individual shareholder in both — which, in merger law, makes him the classic conflicted party. He said so himself, with a joke that also happened to be a precise description of the legal situation: "Because I'm a conflicted party, I can't actually be in the discussions of the special committees, so it's this sort of an odd kabuki dance where two groups of people are talking, and I can't be in the conversation."
That is why the committees matter. TechCrunch reported that Tesla has seven independent directors under Nasdaq listing standards, including board chair Robyn Denholm and former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, according to the company's October 19 proxy filing — and neither Musk nor his brother Kimbal Musk counts as independent. SpaceX lists six independent directors of its own. Those independent directors, not Musk, will decide whether a deal should happen, on what terms, and at what exchange of value between the two shareholder bases. It is also worth noting what is not in Tesla's October 19 proxy filing for its December 3 annual meeting: any merger proposal. Whatever the committees decide, it is not being put to Tesla shareholders at that meeting.
Two very different votes
The voting math is not symmetric. At SpaceX, the IPO cemented Musk's grip — he holds more than 50% of the voting power — so building shareholder support there is comparatively straightforward. At Tesla, Musk noted, a merger would need a 50% vote from all shareholders, not just from those who actually vote. That is a much higher bar: every share that stays home counts, in effect, as a share that did not say yes. Historically, Tesla's shareholders have broadly fallen in line with Musk's wishes, as CNN noted — but a majority-of-everything standard is the hardest version of that test he has ever faced.
What Wall Street Is Saying
Analyst reaction, collected by Reuters within hours of the call, leaned positive — with the governance process itself earning as much praise as the deal logic. Daniel Newman, CEO of the Futurum Group, called the merger "inevitable pretty much since the announcement of the SpaceX IPO," arguing that together the two companies "bring together Space, AI, Autonomy, and Robotics and would be arguably the most well positioned company on the planet for what comes next." Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, said each company appears to be "building the case on existing synergies," and noted Musk mentioned the idea twice on the call.
Yuri Khodjamirian, chief investment officer at Tema ETFs, made the joint-projects point and backed the process: "In our view the combination makes sense — it brings together everything under one roof and the companies are already working on major joint projects. We think the special committees are a good step and it looks like a good effort is being made to address the governance challenges." Skeptics, for now, are mostly pointing at the unknowns rather than the concept: no valuation has been agreed between the two sides, minority shareholders at both companies will scrutinize any exchange ratio intensely, and a combination of this size would draw regulatory attention in the US and abroad. At Tuesday's closing prices, market roundups put SpaceX at roughly $2 trillion and Tesla at nearly $1.5 trillion — a combined value of about $3.5 trillion that no two sets of shareholders have ever had to divide up before.
What Happens Next
The immediate next milestone arrives within hours: Tesla reports its own third-quarter results after the market closes on Wednesday, October 21, with an earnings webcast scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern — Musk's first call with Tesla analysts since confirming the committees. Expect the merger to dominate the questions, and expect Musk to be legally constrained in what he can add. Beyond that, the honest timeline is that there is no timeline. The committees must do their work, independent advisers must value both companies, and any eventual proposal would still need that demanding Tesla shareholder vote. Deals of this size are measured in quarters and years, not weeks — and many special-committee processes end with a quiet decision to do nothing at all.
Scam Warning: No Claim Form, No Free Shares, No Sign-Up
- Merger news is prime scam material. There is no registration, claim form or application connected to a possible SpaceX–Tesla merger — no deal even exists yet.
- Beware posts promising "free SpaceX shares," early merger allocations or guaranteed profits for a small fee. Musk's separate share-pledge headlines have already been copied by fake giveaway pages; this news will be copied the same way.
- Real shareholder votes, if one is ever called, come through your broker or the company's official investor channels — never through social media links, messaging apps or crypto wallets.
- Never send money, wallet keys or ID scans to "secure" shares in an unannounced deal. If an offer needs you to act in the next hour, it is not an investment opportunity; it is a pressure tactic.
If You Own the Shares or Just Follow the Story: Your Checklist
- Separate the confirmed from the rumored: what is confirmed is two committees and Musk's support. Terms, price, structure and timing are all unconfirmed.
- Watch Tesla's October 21 earnings call for governance language — and notice what Musk declines to answer, which will itself be information.
- Read filings, not clips: any real step will appear in SEC filings and official proxy materials long before it appears in a viral post.
- Keep your own records straight: if you hold either stock, save your statements, proxy notices and broker messages somewhere you control, not only inside one app.
- Ignore anyone selling certainty: the man proposing the deal has publicly said it may not happen. Anyone more certain than Musk is selling something.
That last point about keeping records under your own control applies well beyond investing. Merger seasons generate a flood of official-looking PDFs, proxy forms and "verification" emails, and the safest habit is to keep your genuine financial documents in local storage that only you can open. For Android users, Pro Calculator Secure Vault keeps photos, videos, audio, documents and private notes in local on-device storage, protected by sign-in protection and an intruder selfie feature, with no data collected or shared with third parties — a sensible home for the brokerage statements and ID scans you should never leave floating in a downloads folder.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have SpaceX and Tesla agreed to merge?
No. On October 20, 2026, Elon Musk confirmed that both boards have formed special committees of independent directors to review a possible merger. The committees have not agreed on any terms, no price has been set, and Musk himself warned that treating a merger as certain would be "overstating it."
Why can't Elon Musk take part in the merger talks?
Because he is CEO and the largest individual shareholder of both companies, Musk is a conflicted party in any negotiation between them. The review is therefore being run by independent directors at each company, and Musk has said he cannot be in the committee discussions.
What would a combined SpaceX and Tesla be worth?
Based on Tuesday's closing prices, market roundups put SpaceX at roughly $2 trillion and Tesla at nearly $1.5 trillion, for a combined value of about $3.5 trillion. That is a market snapshot, not an agreed deal valuation — no merger price or share-exchange terms exist yet.
What has to happen for a merger to go ahead?
The special committees would have to recommend terms, both boards would have to approve them, and shareholders would have to vote in favor. At Tesla, Musk has said approval would require support from a majority of all outstanding shares, not just a majority of votes cast — a deliberately high bar. SpaceX's vote is easier to assemble because Musk holds more than 50% of its voting power.
How did SpaceX's earnings trigger this?
The confirmation came during SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call on October 20, when Musk was asked directly about the long-rumored merger. The call followed a blowout quarter — $14.6 billion in revenue, up 161% year over year, and $4.4 billion in net income versus the roughly $1.57 billion analysts expected — in which SpaceX's AI segment, at roughly $7.6 billion, overtook Starlink-led connectivity as its biggest business.
Can I sign up or claim shares in the merged company?
No, and be very careful with anyone who says otherwise. There is no deal, no merged company, no claim form and no allocation program. Offers of free or early shares in a combined SpaceX–Tesla are scams; legitimate shareholder actions are handled only through your broker and official company filings.
Conclusion
Strip away the trillion-dollar numbers and October 20, 2026 still marks a genuine turning point: the SpaceX–Tesla merger is no longer a rumor Musk bats away, but a formal process being run by independent directors at two public companies, with the world's most famous CEO publicly supporting a deal he is legally barred from negotiating. The logic he offered — AI software, robotics, orbital data centers and a joint chip fab pulling the two companies into one — is already visible in how SpaceX and Tesla actually operate. Whether shareholders, especially Tesla's, will accept the price of formalizing it is a question that will take months to answer, starting with Tesla's earnings call tonight. Until a filing says otherwise, everything beyond the committees themselves is speculation. And for the documents that speculation will generate — statements, notices and forms — keep your copies somewhere that answers only to you: Pro Calculator Secure Vault is built by ZAS, with 8 smart calculators (standard, floating, BMI, age, currency, tip, GST & VAT and loan EMI), an intruder selfie feature and an incognito private browser alongside its local vault — see more of our apps on our developer page on Google Play.
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