\n Published on
\n 04\/02\/2026 – 11:42 GMT+1\n <\/p>\n
Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX is now valued at $1.25 trillion (\u20ac1.06tn) following its merger with artificial intelligence venture xAI, narrowing the gap with Tesla and reshaping the balance of power inside within his business empire.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u2019s market capitalisation stands at about $1.58 trillion (\u20ac1.34tn), only 26% higher than SpaceX\u2019s latest private valuation. <\/p>\n
On paper, Musk now derives more of his wealth from the rocket company than from the electric carmaker.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u2019s value slipped at the start of 2026. The stock is down around 6% this year, after the company reported a 16% fall in vehicle deliveries in early January and a 3% drop in total revenue for 2025 \u2014 its first annual decline on record.<\/p>\n
The core car business has come under pressure from rising competition in China and Europe, as well as the end of a federal tax credit for electric vehicles in the US. <\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s political activity, including ties to the Trump administration and support for far-right figures in Europe, has also weighed on the brand.<\/p>\n
Electric vehicle sales drop, forcing shift to robots<\/p>\n
As EV sales soften, Musk has shifted Tesla\u2019s focus towards robotaxi services and its Optimus humanoid robots \u2014 areas where the company has yet to build a meaningful business. <\/p>\n
Last week, he told analysts Tesla would end production of its Model S and X vehicles, which accounted for less than 3% of deliveries in 2025, and repurpose those production lines for Optimus.<\/p>\n
By contrast, SpaceX occupies a dominant position in its core markets. The company is the leading provider of orbital launch services, with multi-billion-dollar contracts from NASA and the US Department of Defense. <\/p>\n
It also operates the Starlink satellite internet network, which has more than 9,000 satellites in orbit and about nine million customers.<\/p>\n
The merger announced this week values SpaceX at $1 trillion (\u20ac847bn) and xAI at $250 billion (\u20ac212bn). <\/p>\n
It follows a previous deal last year in which xAI acquired the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in a stock transaction.<\/p>\n
Musk said the SpaceX-xAI tie-up is intended to support the development of data centres in space, which he believes could avoid energy constraints on Earth. <\/p>\n
They said a full-scale rollout was unlikely in the near term, given the technical, supply-chain and financial challenges. <\/p>\n
The project would require new solutions for radiation protection and cooling in space, as well as the cost of launching and assembling large amounts of heavy equipment.<\/p>\n
Political and regulatory risks for X<\/p>\n
Despite the lofty valuation, the merger could create new risks for investors. SpaceX profits may be diverted to fund xAI\u2019s infrastructure, while the AI company faces regulatory scrutiny in several markets.<\/p>\n
Authorities in Europe, India, Malaysia and the US have launched investigations into xAI\u2019s Grok image generator after it was used to produce explicit deepfake images of women and children. <\/p>\n
French investigators also raided X\u2019s offices this week as part of a probe into alleged algorithmic abuse.<\/p>\n
Legal experts say some of those risks could spill over to SpaceX, particularly as much of its Starlink business operates internationally.<\/p>\n
For now, those complications may be easier to manage while SpaceX remains privately held and under Musk\u2019s control. <\/p>\n
A future public listing would raise tougher questions about whether investors would support such a high valuation alongside new regulatory and political risks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 04\/02\/2026 – 11:42 GMT+1 Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX is now valued at $1.25 trillion (\u20ac1.06tn) following its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[218,605,61,60,82,247,2306,1188],"class_list":["post-281956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-elon-musk","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}