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Editor’s Note: Elon Musk is making a big bet on Phase 3 AI. That’s why he closed the Freemont California factory and stopped building electric vehicles. Instead, he’s betting Tesla’s entire future on this new breakthrough.
Get the details – and my top 5 hidden stocks.
Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) unveiled a flying car last night.
The new Roadster drove up a curved ramp until it was completely upside down, held in place by a fan-powered suction system. Then it fired its thrusters, flipped in midair, and landed. Later in the demo it hopped over a Cybercab, a Cybertruck, a Model 3, a Model Y and a Tesla Semi.
“Turns out the future does have flying cars,” Elon Musk told the crowd.
The event wasn’t held at a Tesla factory. It was staged at a SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) rocket test site in McGregor, Texas.
The Roadster comes in three versions.
· The Performance trim takes a $50,000 reservation.
· The Thrust trim adds rear thrusters for 0–60 in under one second and takes a $250,000 reservation.
· A one-seat Rocket trim is invite-only, with 10 thrusters fed by 600 liters of compressed air. Top speed is over 230 mph. Production starts in 2028.
These are cold-gas thrusters, which use compressed air rather than rocket fuel. The car makes short hops, not cross-country flights. And it’s a low-volume halo car. It won’t move Tesla’s revenue.
So why does it matter for investors?
The thrusters, the carbon-fiber pressure tanks and the control systems were all built with SpaceX engineers.
Musk called the car the result of a collaboration between “the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company.” Before the event, he posted “Tesla x SpaceX” with the livestream link.
The event shows the growing collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX. I’ve been predicting that the two companies will merge to consolidate Elon’s two largest companies.
Discover how Elon Musk is transforming Tesla – and going “all-in” on Phase 3 AI. Get the details right here.
Barclays agrees.
Analyst Dan Levy said a deal could be announced before Tesla’s annual meeting, which must be held by December 6. He sees SpaceX buying Tesla in an all-stock deal as the most likely structure. At market values of $2.1 trillion for SpaceX and $1.5 trillion for Tesla, Musk would own roughly 37% of the combined company and control about 56% of the votes.
Prediction markets reacted quickly. On Kalshi, the odds of a merger before March jumped to 56% from 29% in two days.
The logic is vertical integration. Tesla brings robotaxis and Optimus. SpaceX brings Grok, Starlink and the launch business. Terafab, the chip factory the two companies are already building together, ties them at the hardware level.
Last night’s demo was the clearest look yet at what a combined Tesla and SpaceX could build.
My view is that Elon wants this deal done in 2027. The current administration in Washington will likely green light a merger between Tesla and SpaceX. Nobody knows who will win the White House in 2028. And Elon won’t want to risk waiting to see the outcome of the next presidential election.
Some folks predict that SpaceX will become the first $10 trillion company. Acquiring Tesla could be a big step toward that milestone.
Get the full story right here.
Ian Wyatt
Editor, Daily Profit