Regulatory filings reveal that since 2023, Tesla Motors (TSLA.US) has generated approximately $890 million in revenue from selling electric vehicles and energy storage batteries to SpaceX and xAI. This substantial volume of internal transactions highlights the deep operational integration across the various entities within Elon Musk's business empire. A regulatory document released on Wednesday confirmed that SpaceX and xAI purchased around $131 million worth of Tesla Cybertrucks last year, aligning with prior media reports. The majority of these internal transactions are concentrated in the energy storage battery business: $506 million in 2025 and $191 million in 2024, primarily involving Tesla's supply of its large-scale Megapack batteries to xAI. In February, space exploration company SpaceX announced its acquisition of artificial intelligence firm xAI, both of which are owned by Musk. The $890 million figure for Tesla's related-party revenue comes from operational and financial disclosures released by SpaceX ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO). Tesla also disclosed some of these sales figures in its regulatory filings last month. It was reported that on May 20 local time, SpaceX formally submitted its S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an IPO, planning to list on the Nasdaq, with a potential ticker symbol "SPCX." The filing did not disclose the specific number of shares to be offered or the pricing range. However, market estimates suggest a target valuation between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion, with potential fundraising reaching $75 billion to $80 billion, far exceeding recent large-scale tech IPOs. **Musk's Business Empire: Deep Interconnections and Emerging Concerns** As SpaceX advances its IPO process, more details about Musk's corporate network are coming to light. Beyond Tesla and SpaceX, Musk also oversees social media platform X (formerly Twitter), brain-computer interface company Neuralink, and tunnel construction firm The Boring Company. His industrial portfolio spans cutting-edge sectors including commercial spaceflight, electric vehicles, humanoid robotics, and general artificial intelligence. For a long time, Musk's companies have been deeply intertwined through capital investments, business collaborations, and overlapping shareholders, with the entities sometimes even sharing employees. For instance, Tesla is currently collaborating with SpaceX to build a semiconductor manufacturing facility named Terafab. On Wednesday, SpaceX also announced the appointment of Tesla board members Ira Ehrenpreis (57) and Randy Glein (60) to its own board. Ehrenpreis has served on Tesla's board since 2007, while Glein has been a board observer at SpaceX since 2009. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk, holding significant equity in several companies with continuously rising valuations, firmly holds the position of the world's wealthiest individual. However, beneath the sheen of this business empire, multiple concerns are becoming increasingly apparent. **SpaceX: Dominance in Space, Coexistence of High Growth and Heavy Losses** SpaceX, which develops and manufactures rockets and spacecraft, has become a giant in the commercial space launch sector. Its Starlink satellite internet service now boasts over 9 million subscribers. However, critics have raised concerns that Musk might restrict Starlink services for political reasons (such as during the Russia-Ukraine conflict), sparking debates over the "weaponization of technology." In February 2026, SpaceX acquired Musk's AI company xAI (developer of the Grok chatbot) in an all-stock transaction, marking one of the largest corporate mergers in history. The combined entity was valued at approximately $1.25 trillion. In May, xAI was formally integrated into SpaceX and rebranded as SpaceXAI, solidifying the "Space + AI" strategy. Nevertheless, documents disclosed by the SEC on Wednesday show that SpaceX reported revenue of $18.7 billion in 2025. Due to continuous heavy investment in next-generation rocket development and AI computing infrastructure, the company recorded an operating loss of $2.6 billion. **Tesla: Delayed Technology Deployment and Growth Challenges** Tesla Motors has been instrumental in popularizing electric vehicles and is one of the world's most recognized automotive brands. Its business also spans solar energy, energy storage, autonomous driving, and the humanoid robot Optimus—technologies Musk has repeatedly claimed are "imminent," though their actual deployment has been delayed by years. One of Tesla's most anticipated products, the Cybertruck, has proven commercially disappointing. Coupled with intensifying global competition and consumer pushback against Musk's political stances, Tesla's global deliveries in 2025 fell to 1.636 million units, an 8.6% year-over-year decline. Tesla's stock price has dropped approximately 20% over the past year. **X (formerly Twitter): Volatile Valuation and Polarized Public Discourse** In October 2022, Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, renaming it X, and subsequently implemented large-scale layoffs and loosened content moderation rules. This led to a significant exodus of advertisers, and the platform has been criticized for becoming an "echo chamber" for his personal right-leaning views. Following its integration into xAI in 2025, X's valuation recovered to near its acquisition price range, but its commercial value and societal influence have been significantly impaired. **Neuralink and The Boring Company: Frontier Exploration Amidst Breakthroughs and Controversy** Neuralink focuses on developing brain-computer interface chips. Clinical trials have achieved breakthroughs in thought-controlled cursor and robotic arm movements. However, the company continues to face scrutiny from regulators and the academic community over privacy concerns, long-term safety, and the ethics of human trials. The Boring Company aims to build underground tunnel networks to alleviate traffic congestion. However, its flagship project—the underground tunnel at the Las Vegas Convention Center—has received mixed reviews. Critics argue it is essentially a narrow underground roadway dedicated to Tesla vehicles, far from the revolutionary transportation system Musk initially envisioned. It is noteworthy that such a high volume of related-party transactions can easily raise market concerns regarding the fairness of the dealings and the operational independence of the businesses. Furthermore, with simultaneous expansion across multiple sectors, Musk's limited personal bandwidth and potential uneven resource allocation could lead to lagging development in some areas, posing potential risks to the steady progression of his corporate empire.
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