Tesla and SpaceX have each formed committees of independent directors to review a possible merger, but Elon Musk says no merger terms have been agreed and he is staying out of the talks because he has a conflict of interest.
Musk said the committees had been formed during SpaceX’s third-quarter earnings call on October 20. He said they were created at shareholders’ request. Musk leads both companies.
The committees’ members have not been publicly identified. Musk said he sees possible benefits in bringing the companies together, including potential cooperation on artificial intelligence software, chip design and robotics. But he warned that a merger is not certain.
The committees could fail to reach an agreement. Any proposal would need shareholder support. The disclosure moves the idea beyond speculation and into formal review.
It is not a deal or an announcement that either company’s board has approved a merger. The companies’ businesses already overlap in areas including technology and AI. It remains unknown how a merger might be arranged.
For now, the independent committees, not Musk, are responsible for considering whether a deal makes sense.