Engineering Intern/Co-op

Tesla and SpaceX could unite in Elon Musk's boldest move yet. Last updated Aug 22, 2026 | Merger speculation keeps growing. Tesla and SpaceX remain separate public companies, and neither has announced a merger agreement. However, Elon Musk recently said their operations are beginning to overlap in more areas. He declined to discuss a possible deal during an earnings call, noting that such conversations require a proper setting and formal process. His carefully worded response encouraged investors to consider how vehicles, rockets, satellites, robotics, energy, and artificial intelligence might fit together. SpaceX absorbed xAI first. SpaceX completed an all-stock acquisition of xAI in February 2026, placing Musk's artificial intelligence business and the X platform within its corporate structure. The transaction valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. This enormous deal showed that Musk is willing to combine businesses when their technologies, funding needs, and long-term missions align. It also established a possible blueprint for bringing Tesla into a broader technology organization someday. Tesla holds SpaceX stock. Tesla originally committed $2 billion to xAI in early 2026, but the subsequent acquisition converted that investment into SpaceX common stock. Tesla completed the purchase in March and disclosed that its ownership interest remained below 1%. The stake is modest compared with SpaceX's overall value, yet it gives Tesla a direct financial connection to Musk's aerospace company. Rising SpaceX results could therefore benefit Tesla even without a complete corporate merger. Terafab deepens their connection. Terafab, a planned semiconductor manufacturing complex in Grimes County, Texas, represents one of the companies' most important joint efforts. Tesla expects specialized chips from the project to power vehicles and Optimus humanoid robots. SpaceX intends to develop chips for advanced satellites and potential computing systems operating beyond Earth. Building this capacity together could reduce dependence on external suppliers, improve hardware customization, and provide greater control over the computing infrastructure that supports both companies' ambitions. Video Muted Technology sharing is underway. Cooperation between Tesla and SpaceX extends beyond ownership links and Musk's leadership. SpaceX has purchased Tesla energy storage equipment and vehicles, and both businesses can exchange knowledge on materials, manufacturing, electronics, software, batteries, and automation. Formal integration could make those transfers easier and reduce duplicated development. However, existing commercial arrangements already support collaboration, allowing each company to access valuable technology without immediately exposing shareholders to the complexity of a full-scale merger. Starlink may transform connectivity. Starlink could potentially provide Tesla vehicles with stronger connectivity in locations where conventional cellular coverage is limited or unavailable. Satellite access might eventually support emergency communication, navigation, software updates, and connected services during remote travel. Significant technical, pricing, hardware, and regulatory challenges would still need solutions. Even so, a closer relationship could make Tesla less dependent on traditional telecommunications providers and distinguish its vehicles through broader, more resilient communication capabilities across the United States. Fun fact: Tesla and SpaceX are jointly developing Terafab, a massive Texas semiconductor project designed to make AI chips for everything from Optimus robots to SpaceX's planned space-based data centers. Optimus could support missions. Tesla is designing Optimus as a general-purpose humanoid robot capable of handling repetitive, hazardous, or physically demanding work. SpaceX operates factories, launch facilities, recovery ships, and testing areas where dependable robots could eventually perform useful tasks. Musk has also linked humanoid machines with future Mars exploration. A combination might accelerate real-world testing, but Optimus would first need to prove its reliability, safety, productivity, and commercial value under challenging conditions on Earth. Fun fact: SpaceX acquired xAI in 2026, bringing Musk's rocket and satellite company together with his AI business. A Tesla combination could take that consolidation even further. Tesla energy powers expansion. Tesla's energy business offers Megapack battery systems, solar equipment, and software that stores electricity and manages power use. SpaceX's launch facilities, satellite operations, and growing artificial intelligence infrastructure demand large amounts of reliable energy. Tesla products could support these power-intensive sites and strengthen remote operations. However, equipment intended for Earth cannot automatically function in space, where radiation, temperature extremes, limited weight capacity, and strict safety requirements demand purpose-built designs and extensive testing. Manufacturing expertise could merge. Tesla produces vehicles, batteries, motors, electronics, and energy systems across large manufacturing plants. SpaceX builds rockets, engines, spacecraft, satellites, and specialized ground equipment using rapid development methods. A merger could create opportunities for coordinated purchasing, greater automation, and shared production techniques. However, consumer vehicles and spaceflight hardware face fundamentally different regulations, failure risks, and testing requirements. Meaningful savings would require careful planning rather than simply combining factories, employees, and management systems. Musk's control creates questions. Musk holds substantially greater voting power at SpaceX than at Tesla, making control a sensitive issue in any potential combination. The final transaction structure would determine his influence and the protections available to other shareholders. Independent directors would need to review negotiations involving two companies led by the same executive. Investors, regulators, and courts could closely examine the proposed valuation, decision-making process, conflicts of interest, and treatment of shareholders with limited voting authority. Shareholders could gain variety. Tesla investors could receive broader exposure to launch services, satellites, Starlink, and SpaceX's expanding artificial intelligence operations. SpaceX shareholders could gain access to Tesla's vehicle manufacturing, energy products, autonomy software, robotics program, and consumer network. However, the resulting organization would be harder to evaluate and could finance several expensive projects simultaneously. Some investors may appreciate its diverse opportunities, while others may prefer businesses with clearer priorities, simpler finances, and more predictable industry risks. Integration threatens daily execution. Placing Tesla and SpaceX inside one corporation would not guarantee faster innovation or lower costs. Each company has its own workforce, culture, customers, financial priorities, safety standards, and regulatory duties. A lengthy integration could distract managers and delay important programs. SpaceX must preserve launch reliability as Tesla confronts intense competition in vehicles and autonomous driving. Success would require disciplined spending, clear leadership, protected engineering teams, and carefully defined responsibilities throughout the combined organization. Historic deal remains uncertain. A Tesla-SpaceX combination remains a credible possibility, not a confirmed transaction. Their joint projects, technology exchanges, financial connections, and Musk's recent comments give investors legitimate reasons to discuss deeper consolidation. Nevertheless, major questions involving valuation, governance, regulatory approval, national security, operational integration, and shareholder support remain unanswered. If Musk formally pursues the idea, it could become his boldest corporate decision and one of the largest, most complicated technology mergers ever proposed in the United States. Want to know what happens when big upgrades hit a growing network? Take a moment to see how recent Starlink changes briefly disrupted service and what it means going forward. This slideshow was made with AI assistance and human editing. Read More From This Brand: Marty is a smart home enthusiast who joined the team in 2023 to help grow the brand and the business to fulfil its full potential. Fact checked by. Brian has years of experience as an engineer, but now is one of the most famous people in the smart home industry, helping hundreds of thousands of people to create more time and save money in the process. Was this helpful? Recommended Recently Viewed Liked

Elon Musk announced that Starlink now has 11,000 satellites in orbit, vastly outpacing Amazon's Kuiper constellation, which has only 394 satellites. OneWeb sits in second place with 654 satellites. According to the KeepTrack satellite catalogue, Starlink accounts for more than half of all 19,447 tracked payloads in Earth orbit. SpaceX has launched 12,444 Starlink satellites since May 2019, with roughly 1,660 already reentered. Amazon missed its 1,600-satellite July milestone and pushed its timeline to 2028. Meanwhile, Starlink already serves 12 million paying subscribers through SpaceX's Connectivity segment, which posted $4.29 billion in Q2 2026 revenue, up 66% year over year. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company plans to begin initial satellite internet service this year.

America's launch boom could reshape Texas as SpaceX develops Starship. Nearly 4,300 rocket launches are expected in the next decade across the US. In South Texas, SpaceX's Starship is at the center of that surge. USA TODAY NETWORK Aug. 21, 2026, 9:45 a.m. CT * The FAA predicts commercial rocket launches in the US will dramatically increase over the next decade to an estimated 500 per year. * NASA's Artemis II mission has reignited public interest in human spaceflight, similar to the Apollo era. * Texas has become a central player in the space industry, largely due to SpaceX's Starbase facility in the southern part of the state. * SpaceX is developing its fully reusable Starship megarocket in Texas, which is crucial for future missions to the moon and Mars. In April, the world watched in awe as four intrepid astronauts were launched into space toward the moon atop NASA's most powerful rocket ever. That mission, known as Artemis II, captivated the public for 10 days as three Americans and one Canadian made a trip around the moon and back to Earth. To many observers, Artemis II signified the dawn of a new era of space exploration as NASA aims to return Americans to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. But while the mission has without a doubt been the most high-profile launch of 2026 - reigniting public interest in human spaceflight in a way not seen since the Apollo era - it hardly stands alone. By now, rockets are launching almost every day from U.S. soil - most without people aboard. In fact, just one other mission so far in 2026 - a joint NASA and SpaceX mission launched Feb. 13 to the International Space Station known as Crew-12 - sent astronauts to space. Texas by no means keeps up with the dizzing launch cadence of states like Florida and California, but the Lone Star State has still become a central player in the U.S. spaceflight industry - largely thanks to SpaceX and its Starship megarocket. Here's why rocket launches are predicted to dramatically increase across the United States, and what that means for South Texas, where SpaceX is active. FAA predicts commercial rocket launches to spike in next decade. As NASA increasingly cedes spaceflight missions to commercial companies that were once the realm of government space agencies, those sorts of missions have steadily been increasing year after year. For instance, SpaceX, the commercial spaceflight company founded by tech mogul Elon Musk, has launched its Falcon 9 rocket hundreds of times - making it by far the most active rocket in the world. The two-stage 230-foot rocket is not only used to deliver SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites to Earth orbit, but is also used to propel astronauts to the space station and is contracted for a variety of commercial, civil and military payload deployments. Now, the Federal Aviation Administration - which licenses commercial rocket launches - says the rate of rocket launches across the United States is only expected to grow in the next decade. The FAA is predicting nearly 4,300 launches between fiscal 2026-2036, with spaceflights increasing annually from more than 200 a year to more than 500, according to the agency's 10-year forecast released in July. America's launch dominance grows. The projection should be no surprise to even casual observers of the spaceflight industry in the United States. SpaceX's pioneering method to recover and reuse rocket boosters has not only made manufacturing spacecraft cheaper, but has also led to faster turnaround times between missions. For years, SpaceX has taken advantage of the breakthrough in reusability to launch its Falcon 9 rocket from both Florida and California to build up a massive constellation of more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in a region nearer the atmosphere known as low-Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 has helped usher in an era of American dominance in the spaceflight industry, with both coasts seeing record years in 2025 for rocket launches, largely thanks to the rocket. The Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County in Southern California hosted a record 71 rocket launches last year, while in Florida - where rockets launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Brevard County - a record 109 rocket launches were conducted in 2025. Elsewhere, President Donald Trump and his Republican administration have sought to strip away regulations on the commercial spaceflight industry, while NASA is ramping up its objective of returning Americans to the moon under its Artemis program. South Texas home to SpaceX's Starbase, Starship flight tests. Rockets don't exactly fly regularly from Texas, but the Lone Star State has still managed to establish itself as a mecca for America's spaceflight ambitions. In South Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border, for instance, SpaceX has rapidly expanded its company town and headquarters known as Starbase into a bustling hub. Since April 2023, Starbase in Cameron County - about 180 miles south of Corpus Christi - has been the exclusive location for test flights of SpaceX's mammoth Starship rocket - the last of which came July 24. Standing at more than 400 feet tall when fully stacked, the two-stage rocket is considered the largest and most powerful spacecraft ever launched - even surpassing NASA's iconic Saturn V of the Apollo era. SpaceX is developing the rocket to be the first fully reusable spacecraft ever, with both its upper-stage vehicle and lower-stage booster capable of returning to the launch site instead of being expended during the flight. In the years ahead, Starship is due to be crucial to NASA's plans to land Artemis astronauts on the moon, while Musk also envisions using it to send humans to Mars. Elon Musk, SpaceX, eye Starbase expansion. Starbase, located about 23 miles from Brownsville, was incorporated as its own city in May 2025 following approval by Cameron County voters - most of whom are SpaceX employees. The move, which gave greater municipal control to SpaceX, has repeatedly rankled longtime residents, environmental groups and others opposed to what they see as Musk's attempts to assert control over the Texas area. Starbase, which houses a landing pad, launch facility, launch control center and tracking station for SpaceX, already has its own commissioners and mayor. Now, the city is in the process of establishing its own police department. Starbase is also seeking to annex 7,133 acres of land near Boca Chica Beach - a popular 7-mile stretch of coastline in South Texas. What does this mean for Texans? More rocket launches to watch. If you want to experience the Starship rocket getting off the ground and thundering overhead, you'll have plenty of opportunities. Though SpaceX is expanding Starship operations to Florida, Texas's Starbase will remain a crucial launch site as Musk has grand visions of launching Starship multiple times a day in the years ahead to the moon and Mars. Texas is home to a nearby locale known as South Padre Island that has become a popular spot among spectators, while livestreams are almost always readily available for most rocket launches across the United States. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the rise of what NASA often refers to as "the golden age of innovation and exploration." Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] Deal of the Day Recommendations are independently chosen by its editors. Purchases you make through its links may earn Caller a commission. More Local Stories