Overview
- A Wall Street Journal report said Tesla advisers had been told to prepare options — including a spinoff, sale, closure or internal firewalls — for the company’s China business to clear regulatory paths for a possible merger with SpaceX.
- Elon Musk posted on X that the story is “absurdly fake news” and Tesla China told local outlets the report is false, while Reuters and other outlets said they could not independently verify the Journal’s account.
- Gigafactory Shanghai is central to the dispute because it produced more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries in 2025 and supplies over 95% of its parts locally, making any separation operationally complex.
- Markets and prediction platforms reacted to the WSJ story despite denials, with Tesla shares rising in after-hours trading and some traders raising odds of a merger, showing investor sensitivity to the merger narrative.
- Regulatory and national-security hurdles remain the core obstacle to any combination since SpaceX is a major U.S. defense contractor and a merger would likely trigger intense review by U.S. and Chinese authorities; observers should watch for official filings or further verification of the Journal’s sourcing.