Musk Is Setting the Stage to Make M&A History -- WSJ

By Ben Dummett

No question about it, Elon Musk is the king of M&A.

SpaceX and Tesla have each appointed special board committees to consider merging the two companies-a deal that, if completed, would be the biggest in M&A history by a long shot, according to Dealogic data.

Any deal would likely value Tesla-the smaller of the two companies-at more than $1.5 trillion, accounting for the electric-vehicle marker's current market value and SpaceX paying a takeover premium.

Musk is already behind one of the largest deals in history. That involved SpaceX combining with Musk's xAI back in February, which valued the artificial-intelligence startup at around $250 billion.

But so far, Musk can't claim influence over the world's largest deal.

That rests with the executives and boards behind Vodafone AirTouch, which in 1999 agreed to buy Germany's Mannesmann for almost $172 billion and create a mobile-phone giant. In today's dollars, accounting for inflation, that value translates into about $343 billion.

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October 21, 2026 08:54 ET (12:54 GMT)