SpaceX + 4.4 billion

On Tuesday evening, Elon Musk played spectator to his own company. The boards of SpaceX and Tesla have formed committees of independent directors to study a merger; he, with a conflict of interest, is not sitting on them. He likes the idea, but warns it is not a done deal: at Tesla, it will take half of all shareholders, not just of those who vote.

7.5 billion for “Super Intelligence”

SpaceX generated 14.6 billion dollars in revenue in the third quarter, up 161% on a year earlier, and 4.4 billion in net profit. The engine is called “Super Intelligence”: 7.5 billion in revenue for the division that brings together Grok, the Cursor coding tool and 1.7 gigawatts of rented computing power. Starlink has 13.6 million subscribers.

Musk is looking further ahead: robots, an orbiting data centre named Starmind, a chip factory, Terafab. In November, SpaceX will try to catch Starship and its booster in flight, a first for an orbital launcher.

A company that earns 4.4 billion in a quarter and wants to buy another one is a power before it is a business. When one man holds the rocket, the car and the network, who still holds the man?