Elon Musk has floated the idea of combining SpaceX and Tesla, a move that would also create one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin.
Musk raised the possibility on SpaceX’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. Both companies’ boards have formed special committees of independent directors to consider a tie-up.
Musk cautioned that calling a deal “a certainty” would be “overstating it.”
How much Bitcoin is involved
Tesla holds 11,509 BTC, according to its most recent quarterly filing.
SpaceX holds 18,712 BTC, a figure that became public in the registration statement it filed before its June stock market listing. That is more than double what blockchain trackers had attributed to SpaceX wallets.
Together, the two companies hold 30,221 BTC, worth about $2.5 billion at a Bitcoin price near $83,000. They paid about $1 billion for it in total.
Where that would rank
A combined company would be one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin outside the mining sector, and among the top handful of public holders. It would still sit well behind Strategy, which holds more than 848,000 BTC.
Neither company had signalled any plan to buy or sell Bitcoin at the time of writing.
What happens next
The key step is whether the two board committees recommend a deal. Until then, the combined holding is a figure on paper, and Musk himself has played down the chances of a merger being certain.
