paceX is officially an AI company after closing its acquisition of xAI. The other shoe still to drop: When will Tesla and SpaceX combine forces?
While SpaceX and Tesla traditionally had very different missions — reusable rockets and electric vehicles, respectively — the two have more recently moved into each other's orbits as they prepare to play their part in the AI boom.
They share the same CEO, Elon Musk, of course, and Musk has been publicly entertaining the idea of combining the companies since at least 2020. But the idea always appeared to be little more than conjecture on Twitter, until now. The AI race has prompted both companies to reimagine their roles in a world where AI-powered transformation is taking all the oxygen in the tech industry.
SpaceX naturally sees itself playing a key role in the newly trendy idea of launching solar-powered AI factories into space. Meanwhile, Tesla has increasingly reframed itself as an AI company rather than a car company, with its focus on autonomous taxis and robots.
And while bringing the two companies together might be a lot more convenient for Musk, shareholders in both companies care less about Musk's sleep schedule and more about optimizing the long-term value of their investments.
From that perspective, a combined SpaceX-Tesla organization could have several benefits in creating a single company with AI as its north star:
- Tesla's sometimes-overlooked solar and battery storage businesses could provide key technology SpaceX would need if the datacenter-in-space dream becomes a reality
- With xAI, Tesla could benefit from having a frontier model lab to help optimize and train its AI software for autonomous vehicles
- Bringing together the tech stacks on Tesla's self-driving cars and SpaceX's autonomous rockets could boost the technology of both
- The two companies have pioneered manufacturing advances, Tesla with gigacasting and SpaceX with 3D printing, and combining those efforts and teams could be a force-multiplier, especially as AI begins to intersect with the physical world
- Along with manufacturing, both Tesla and SpaceX are also playing a role in the resurgent robotics sector, which is now at the cutting edge of AI trends as physical AI emerges