Asger Risom
How Elon Musk’s companies have quietly fused into a shared ecosystem
Elon Musk controls some of the world’s most influential technology companies.
Long before talk of mergers, those firms were already doing business with one another.
Together, they now form an increasingly connected network.
An internal network
Musk leads five major companies: Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and xAI, which recently absorbed his social media platform, X.
According to Business Insider, those firms have spent the past three years deepening their internal ties. They have bought products from one another, shared software and staff, and committed billions of dollars in investments.
The result is a tightly linked corporate structure with Musk at its center, blurring the lines between public and private entities.
Staff and leadership overlap
Employees have often moved between Musk’s companies. After Musk bought Twitter in 2022, roughly 50 Tesla engineers were sent to help rebuild its systems, court filings show.
Musk later said the Tesla staff had “volunteered” for the work and that the move should not concern Tesla’s board.
Business Insider also reported overlapping executive roles. Charlie Kuehmann, Tesla’s vice president of materials and engineering, holds the same position at SpaceX.
Shared products and tech
Several companies act as customers for Tesla. SpaceX buys Tesla batteries and Megapack energy-storage systems and has also purchased Cybertrucks.
Musk has said Tesla’s next-generation Roadster will be a “Tesla/SpaceX collab” using SpaceX-built cold-gas thrusters. “It’s gonna be really cool, and it’s gonna have some rocket technology in it,” he said during a 2024 interview with Don Lemon.
The Boring Company also relies on Tesla vehicles to move passengers through its tunnels in Las Vegas and Texas.
AI and capital flows
Tesla has become a key supporter of xAI. The automaker disclosed a $2 billion investment alongside a “framework agreement” to explore further collaboration, Business Insider reported.
Tesla vehicles already integrate xAI’s Grok chatbot, and early demonstrations have shown Optimus robots using the same system for voice interaction.
The deal marked one of the clearest cases of money flowing from Musk’s public company into a private firm he controls.
Power and concern
Supporters say the structure improves resilience. Musk has argued that close coordination reduces geopolitical and supply-chain risk.
Critics, however, warn about governance. “The important thing is to ensure good governance is in place,” Lou Whiteman of The Motley Fool told Business Insider.
Sources: Business Insider, Tesla
