Elon Musk is reportedly exploring a plan to merge SpaceX with Tesla by carving out Tesla's China business, a move that could redraw the lines between his car, rocket and artificial intelligence empires while alarming officials in Beijing worried about data on roughly two million Chinese Tesla owners.
The Wall Street Journal reported that advisers to Musk and Tesla have been weighing options to separate the company's China operations from its US business ahead of any potential tie-up with SpaceX. According to people cited by the paper, scenarios on the table include spinning off, selling or even shutting down Tesla's China arm, and some senior Tesla executives have allegedly been told to prepare for a breakaway. Tesla did not respond to the Journal's request for comment, while Musk publicly dismissed the story as 'fake news' on his social media platform X. Nothing is confirmed yet, so all of this should be taken with a grain of salt.
