Tesla/SpaceX merger, Rivian R2 progress, new Mercedes GLA, and more

But yeah, last night, um, Wall Street Journal came out with a report based on a source close to Tesla saying that, um, the company has been weighing in whether to... what to do with its Chinese business ahead of a merger with SpaceX.

And discussion have went as far as to sell it, just or winding down completely.

Um, which is obviously kind of surprising to a lot of people.

We, we've discussed that before.

We, um, you know, the, the, the entire idea of, uh, SpaceX and Tesla merging is not, is not new.

It's been around for a long time, but it's been ramping up over the last year as SpaceX is kind of gobbling up Elon's other company through, through xAI buying Twitter, then SpaceX buying xAI, and so on.

So the, the, this idea has been, has been around for a while, but it is ramping up right now.

And now, uh, uh, in, in the last few, in the last week really, the, the, the pinnacle of it has been, um, analysts or Wall Street analysts asking directly Elon about the, the potential of, uh, of the merger, uh, on the earnings call last week.

And Elon, who's, you know, normally cannot shut, shut up about, you know, anything, uh, for the first time shut up about it and actually deferred to a lawyer saying that they cannot talk about it on the call.

Which is a big tell that things are happening behind the scene and they are trying to, uh, um, to look into a merger between SpaceX and Tesla.

Now, we talked about this before at Electric, where like I don't see...

Well, I, I see China being an issue for a merger with, uh, between Tesla and SpaceX because China is such a big part of Tesla, both for sale but also for production and as a supply chain.

Uh, completely le- like you, if, if China disappear tomorrow morning, Tesla disappear with it.

There's just no way around it.

This is, that's how, that's how it works.

So to merge what is basically a US defense company with a company that completely relies on China is, based on the current ITAR and, you know, trade laws, uh, problematic on both, both sides, by the way.

On the, on the US side and on the Chinese side as well.

Uh, so, so it's, um, i- it's not just a one-way thing.

Now, on the US side of things, I've always said that because Elon is obviously very well connected within the government, uh, I, I, I assume there's probably ways around it, you know? You know, you just put an extra million to Trump for, uh, the next election-

Right

... cycle and then, [chuckles] and then it's, it's a done deal.

Like, uh, but, uh, on the Chinese side might be more complicated, and this is also what the Wall Street Journal, uh, wrote, is that it's not, is, the, the problem is not necessarily the US.

It might be China that might have an issue with, you know, Tesla technically being owned by, uh... 'Cause, 'cause by the way, like is, [chuckles] I mean, SpaceX is gonna own Tesla, not the other way around, the way, at, at least the way it's trading right now.

Uh, so that, uh, Tesla, such a, a, a company that's, you know, embedded into the, the Chinese, uh, industries being owned by, you know, one of the lar- the largest, uh, defense contractor i, in the US.

So it, it, it is problematic.