Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief working officer, interviews with CNBC throughout the firm’s IPO on the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York Metropolis on June 12, 2026.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
As SpaceX was poised to hit the Nasdaq following the biggest preliminary public providing on file, Elon Musk’s second-in-command, Gwynne Shotwell, did not dismiss the potential of an eventual tie-up with Tesla, Musk’s different trillion-dollar firm.
Chatting with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan on Friday, Shotwell stated such a mixture “would possibly make Elon’s life a little bit simpler.”
Musk formally grew to become the world’s first trillionaire on account of his stakes within the two firms. At SpaceX, he has hefty management over decision-making, with over 80% voting energy. He sits on Tesla’s board and tends to get his approach.
Shotwell is SpaceX’s working chief and joined in 2002 as one of many rocket maker’s earliest workers. No matter would possibly occur within the years to return, Shotwell stated she has loads of work to do at the moment. SpaceX’s market cap opened above $2 trillion, making it the sixth most precious U.S. firm, forward of Tesla.
“There is a convergence of what we’re all making an attempt to perform sooner or later, however proper now I am targeted on retaining the lights on right here,” Shotwell stated.
Musk has a historical past of mixing his entities.
In February, he merged SpaceX with xAI, his synthetic intelligence startup, in a deal that valued the mixed firm at $1.25 trillion. The principle cause for that deal, he stated on the time, is to higher construct “orbital information facilities.”
The transaction dropped at SpaceX information facilities in addition to Grok’s AI fashions, AI chatbot and picture generator. It additionally included social community X, previously often known as Twitter, as a result of Musk had merged X and xAI in early 2025.
Tesla and SpaceX already share assets, together with engineers, and Musk has mentioned merging the businesses, CNBC beforehand reported. Tesla owns inventory in SpaceX after investing in xAI.
Shotwell acknowledged that each firms align, however stated she’s targeted on constructing rockets, bettering broadband entry and attending to the Worldwide Area Station.
However she acknowledged that M&A will proceed to play a job, “particularly once you have a look at the AI world.” SpaceX owns an possibility to purchase AI-coding startup Cursor for $60 billion.
“I feel you will see extra of that simply usually,” she stated.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
WATCH: CNBC’s full interview with SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell
