Elon Musk [Reuters/Yonhap]
Elon Musk [Reuters/Yonhap]

Barclays has said a merger between Tesla and SpaceX, both led by Elon Musk, could be announced before Tesla's annual shareholder meeting.

In a report released Wednesday (local time), Barclays analyst Dan Levy said he expects Tesla's annual shareholder meeting to be held no later than Dec. 6.

Analysts said a merger between the two companies would generate financial synergies, but argued the real value would lie in vertically integrating their AI technologies.

With Musk serving as CEO of both companies, the combination is expected to give rise to an unprecedented "AI empire."

"A merger of the two companies is increasingly becoming a market consensus," Barclays said, adding that if an announcement is delayed until late October or early November, it would put pressure on the timeline for securing shareholder approval at the meeting.

Market experts and investors have been anticipating a merger of the two companies following SpaceX's record-breaking initial public offering, Bloomberg reported.

SpaceX has purchased more than $100 million worth of Tesla Cybertrucks, while xAI has also been buying Tesla ESS batteries in bulk.

Through the Terafab semiconductor manufacturing project, the two companies plan to jointly produce chips for Tesla's electric vehicles, robotaxis and Optimus humanoid robots, as well as SpaceX's satellite-dedicated chips.

Musk has also signaled growing overlap between the two companies, noting during a recent earnings call that Tesla "overlaps with SpaceX in many ways."

Barclays identified a shareholder vote as the biggest hurdle to a merger, since approval from shareholders of both companies would be required.

"About 11% of shareholders who held shares through brokerages did not submit proxies at last year's Tesla shareholder meeting," Barclays said. "Tesla will need to make an all-out effort to boost shareholder participation in order to win the vote on a merger with SpaceX."


husn7@heraldcorp.com