SpaceX jumps 10%, Tesla rises on stunning revenue surge and possible merger

Shares of SpaceX and Tesla soared Wednesday after Elon Musk’s rocket firm reported blowout revenue and a possible merger with his EV maker – sending other tech stocks and the Nasdaq higher.

The rocket and satellite firm was up 10% Wednesday morning after reporting third-quarter revenue of $14.6 billion – up a whopping 161% from the previous year. That included roughly $7.6 billion from its AI division – now called SI, a nod to President Trump’s preferred term “super intelligence” – and marked a drastic shift for the company, which was previously leaning on revenue from its Starlink satellite business. 

Meanwhile, Musk – the world’s richest person – said during an earnings call Tuesday that he is weighing a historic merger with Tesla and that the boards of both companies have created committees to discuss a tie-up. 

Shares of SpaceX and Tesla soared Wednesday after Elon Musk’s rocket firm reported blowout revenue and a possible merger with his EV maker. REUTERS

“I do think there’s a lot of merit to combining the companies as we are pretty much in the superintelligence singularity, and there’s a lot to be gained from cooperating,” the near-trillionaire business mogul said.

Shares of Tesla, which is set to report third-quarter earnings after the closing bell Wednesday, jumped 3.3% Wednesday morning. 

Dan Ives, partner at Yorkville Ives & Co, estimated there is an 80% to 90% chance that Tesla and SpaceX merge by the end of 2027 “for a number of strategic AI and data-driven reasons.” 

The Nasdaq rose 0.4% Wednesday, while space stocks like RocketLab, Intuitive Machines and AST SpaceMobile jumped 4.1%, 6.4% and 1.1%, respectively.

SpaceX’s upbeat earnings came four months after its record-breaking IPO in June, which valued the company at roughly $1.75 trillion and raised more than $85 billion in net proceeds. It is now worth more than $2 trillion. 

A tie-up between SpaceX and Tesla could easily become the largest merger in history, as the automaker boasts its own $1.5 trillion market cap – despite struggling to sell its electric cars in markets worldwide.

But Tesla got investors buzzing last week with the reveal of a futuristic “flying” car. In stunning video footage, the Tesla Roadster could be seen zooming to the top of a vertically curved track before launching into the air, flipping midway and landing on the ground using jet propulsion.


The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster returns to Launch Complex 40 after launching the Crew-13 mission.
SpaceX’s upbeat earnings came four months after its record-breaking IPO in June. Pat Benic/UPI/Shutterstock

Musk has steadily been combining his ventures over the years. In February, SpaceX acquired his xAI business, becoming SpaceXAI and taking over the Grok chatbot, social-media platform X and cloud-leasing business. Much of the company’s revenue is now coming from its ability to rent out AI computing power.

Last year, SpaceX bought about $100 million worth of Tesla Cybertrucks – another sign that Musk is looking for ways to take advantage of the close links between the companies.

“We delivered another strong quarter in Q3. Revenue grew an impressive 161% year-over-year, fueled by continued momentum in Connectivity and a clear inflection in our Super Intelligence business,” SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnson said Tuesday.

The company also reported operating income of $2.8 billion and net income of $4.4 billion – much improved from a net loss of $1.05 billion in the same period last year.

SpaceX is forecasting first-quarter revenue in 2027 of $33 billion to $37 billion, above analysts’ expectations of $22.2 billion.

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