Musk says Tesla and SpaceX formed committees to weigh a merger

What happened

Elon Musk said on SpaceX's earnings call on Tuesday 20 October that SpaceX and Tesla have each formed a special committee of independent directors to weigh merging the two companies. ^{[15, 17, 18]}

He said the committees were formed at shareholders' request and that, as a 'conflicted party', he cannot take part in their talks, CNBC reported. He called a merger a good idea, CNBC reported, but said the committees had not agreed on terms and there was no guarantee they would, Fortune reported. ^{[15, 18]}

Musk raised the matter on Tesla's own call on Wednesday 21 October but gave no new information, saying he had said what should be said the day before, CNBC reported. Tesla's results filing and shareholder update of that day do not mention the committees. ^{[16, 1, 2]}

The record

Neither company had put the committees on the SEC record by the evening of Wednesday 21 October. The newest current report from each, the form for news between quarterly reports, is its results filing, and neither results release mentions the committees. The two companies' own lists of press releases that evening ended with their results releases. ^{[5, 9, 1, 2, 6, 10, 11]}

When Tesla formed a committee in August 2018 over Musk's plan to take the company private, it put the release on the SEC record that day, naming its three independent members and their lawyers. ^[4]

The two companies already trade: Tesla booked about $143.3 million of 2025 revenue from SpaceX, mostly vehicles, and about $430.1 million from xAI, mostly Megapack batteries. Tesla agreed in January to invest about $2.00 billion in xAI Holdings, Musk's AI company; after SpaceX acquired it on 2 February, the money bought SpaceX shares on Thursday 12 March, Tesla's proxy says. Ira Ehrenpreis, who chairs Tesla's compensation committee, has sat on SpaceX's board since February 2026, the proxy adds. ^{[3, 15]}

SpaceX's prospectus of 12 June said Musk would hold about 82.4 percent of its voting power after the offering, giving him control of matters put to shareholders. On Tesla's side, Musk said a deal would need the votes of 50 percent of all shares, not only of those that vote, CBS News and CNBC reported. Tesla had 3,952,648,559 shares outstanding on 30 September, and its proxy puts Musk's holding at 19.8 percent. ^{[7, 17, 15, 3]}

Tesla's update for the quarter puts revenue at $28.0 billion, roughly flat on the year, and net income for common shareholders at $787 million, against $1,373 million a year earlier. It produced 464,391 vehicles, delivered 486,532 and ended September with $45,447 million in cash and short-term investments. It began Robotaxi rides in Cybercabs in Austin on 3 September and counted 1.74 million active subscriptions to FSD, driver-assistance software that needs a watching driver. ^[2]

Tesla said it is focused on 'maximum capacity utilization' at its factories and that deliveries will depend on demand, supply chains and how many cars it keeps for its own fleet. SpaceX's release of Tuesday 20 October puts its quarter's revenue at $14,575 million, up 161 percent on the year, and net income at $4,404 million. ^{[2, 6]}

Who it reaches

Tesla (TSLA) is direct: its board formed one of the committees, Musk said, and a deal would need 50 percent of all its shares. Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX) is direct: its board formed the other, and Musk controls about 82 percent of its vote, Fortune reported. The businesses at stake are Tesla's cars, batteries and robots and SpaceX's rockets, Starlink internet service and AI computing, as each company's quarterly release describes them. ^{[15, 17, 18, 2, 6]}

Tesla's retail holders are reached through the vote. The proxy offers them a standing instruction to vote with the board at future meetings; one of its two versions leaves out contested elections of directors and any merger that needs shareholders' approval. ^[3]

Where the sources disagree

The reports differ on Musk's exact words. Yahoo Finance quoted him as saying 'I think both SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees'; CBS News's quotation of the remark starts at 'Both', without 'I think'. SpaceX's release says a transcript will be posted at ir.spacex.com; its investor site listed none for the quarter on Wednesday 21 October. ^{[19, 17, 6, 12]}

They differ on figures too. Fortune put Musk's SpaceX stake at 45 percent and Yahoo Finance at about 48 percent, and CNN dated SpaceX's listing to July, though SpaceX's 10-Q says its prospectus was filed on 12 June. CNBC's Tesla story set net income of $787 million against $1.11 billion 'a year earlier', but Tesla's update shows that figure was the second quarter's; a year earlier it was $1,373 million. ^{[18, 19, 20, 8, 16, 2]}

What settles it next

Tesla's quarterly report on Form 10-Q is due within 40 days of the quarter's end, by Monday 9 November on the desk's count; SpaceX's category in the SEC's records gives it 45 days. Tesla's annual meeting is on Thursday 3 December, and its three proposals, on directors, pay and the auditor, do not include a merger. Under Form 8-K's rules, a company reports a material agreement outside its ordinary business within four business days of signing it. ^{[13, 5, 9, 3, 14]}