Bloomberg Businessweek

The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.
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Elon Musk plans to merge SpaceX with xAI, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that encompasses the billionaire’s increasingly costly ambitions to dominate artificial intelligence and space exploration.

The deal was announced in a memo on Monday, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. The combined company is expected to price the shares at about $527 each, and would have a valuation of $1.25 trillion, some of the people said.
Representatives for SpaceX and xAI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bloomberg News earlier reported on the discussions. SpaceX is planning an initial public offering that could raise as much as $50 billion, Bloomberg News has reported. It also discussed a possible merger with Tesla.

The deal brings together two of the largest closely held companies in the world. XAI raised funds at a $230 billion valuation in January, while SpaceX was set to go ahead with a share sale in December at about a valuation of about $800 billion, Bloomberg reported, and is exploring a possible IPO.

It also further entangles Musk’s various business ventures. The billionaire acquired social media platform Twitter in late 2022, renamed it X, then merged the site with his artificial intelligence startup xAI in a $33 billion deal. XAI, which also operates chatbot Grok, is an expensive operation, burning around $1 billion a month in service of its stated ambition to gain “a deeper understanding of our universe.” A merger with SpaceX pools capital, talent, access to compute — and blurs corporate boundaries.

The tie-up may crystallize Musk’s vision to put data centers in space to do complex computing for AI. SpaceX is requesting permission to launch as many as a million satellites into the Earth’s orbit for the plan, according to a filing Friday.

Today's show features:
Gil Luria, Managing Director and Head of Technology Research at DA Davidson, breaks down quarterly earnings from Palantir and and Elon Musk's plans to merge SpaceX with xAI
Bloomberg Tech Co-host Ed Ludlow on how Elon Musk aims to dominate both artificial intelligence and space exploration
Jayati Bharadwaj, Director of FX Strategy at TD Securities, on the recent weakening in the US dollar
Paisley Nardini, Head of Multi-Asset Solutions at Simplify Asset Management, on why she sees the rotation trade into value stocks taking hold

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Aon's initial 2026 margin guidance is slightly better than analyst estimates, on the heels of a solid fourth quarter. Bloomberg Intelligence notes that organic growth was in line with Wall Street as upside in reinsurance offset a miss in health. The 2025 result of 6% is close to the previous three years but better than peer Marsh. The consolidated adjusted operating margin beat consensus and expanded from a year earlier making the 2025 result also better than estimates.

Edmund Reese, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Aon, discusses the key risks facing the firm in 2026 and how it is positioning itself to better serve clients and stakeholders amid global uncertainty. Edmund speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.

Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.

Kevin Warsh waited almost a decade before finally clinching President Donald Trump’s nomination to be chair of the Federal Reserve. He won’t need to wait as long before his first big test in the job.

Having won the race with a promise of “regime change” at the Fed, suggesting he would make significant changes, Warsh has pledged to shrink the Fed’s balance sheet and argued that a productivity boom driven by artificial intelligence will keep inflation low.

While that prognosis was enough to convince Trump, his Fed pick will now need to convince fellow policymakers and investors. After cutting rates three times late last year the Fed hit pause in January amid persistent inflation, signs of a stabilizing labor market and expectations for stronger growth in 2026. Traders aren’t pricing another rate cut until June, at the earliest.

The tension in Trump’s demand for cheaper borrowing costs may ultimately be resolved by a weakening labor market or lower inflation. Such a backdrop would greenlight Warsh to push for more rate cuts, and possibly win support from other policymakers.

Today's show features:
Bloomberg TV and Radio International Economics & Policy Correspondent Michael McKee on President Donald Trump’s intent to nominate Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve
Katy Kaminski, Chief Research Strategist and Portfolio Manager at AlphaSimplex Group, on the bond market and expectations for the Federal Reserve’s next leader
Jan van Eck, Chief Executive Officer of VanEck Funds, on the stock and commodities market outlook and investing through ETFs
Ellen Wald, President of Transversal Consulting and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, on earnings from Exxon and Chevron, and the energy market amid unrest related to events in Iran and Venezuela
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The Trump administration has pushed a sweeping policy agenda intended to hinder immigration. This has included a move in September to increase the fees on H-1B visa applications to $100,000 apiece, a staggering tenfold hike, along with other changes that have made the program less desirable to employers. Foreign-born residents are facing increasing hostility from Washington, regardless of their legal status. For many, the long-term viability of a career in Silicon Valley seems less certain than ever.
India is trying to attract skilled professionals to return home with policies like Bharat-Talent and Bharat-Return, and some foreign-born tech workers are already pivoting to the world's most populous country, where the tech industry is maturing and offering new opportunities. Saritha Rai details these developments in a Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, and speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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