SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell speaks with CNBC during the company’s IPO on June 12, 2026, on the Nasdaq Marketsite in New York City.
Adam Jeffrey | CNBC
as space x Elon Musk’s second-in-command, Gwynne Shotwell, did not rule out the possibility of eventually partnering with the company, even as the company was poised to list on the Nasdaq market following the largest initial public offering in history. teslaMusk’s other trillion dollar company.
Speaking to CNBC’s Morgan Brennan on Friday, Shotwell said such a combination “could make Elon’s life a little bit easier.”
With his stock ownership in both companies, Musk officially became the world’s first trillionaire. At SpaceX, he holds more than 80% of the voting rights and has significant control over decision-making. He sits on Tesla’s board of directors and tends to get his way.
Mr. Shotwell is SpaceX’s executive director, having joined the company in 2002 as one of the rocket maker’s earliest employees. No matter what happens in the next few years, Shotwell said there’s a lot of work to be done today. SpaceX has a market capitalization of more than $2 trillion, making it the sixth most valuable company in the United States, ahead of Tesla.
“What we’re all trying to accomplish in the future is converging, but right now we’re focused on keeping the lights on here,” Shotwell said.
Mr. Musk has a history of combining his entities.
In February, he merged SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup xAI, valuing the combined company at $1.25 trillion. He said at the time that the main reason for the deal was to improve the construction of “orbital data centers.”
The deal brought Grok’s AI models, AI chatbots, and image generators, as well as SpaceX data centers. Social network X, formerly known as Twitter, was also included, as Musk integrated X and xAI in early 2025.
CNBC previously reported that Tesla and SpaceX already share resources, including engineers, and that Musk is discussing merging the two companies. Tesla owns a stake in SpaceX after investing in xAI.
Shotwell acknowledged that the two companies are on the same page, but said they are focused on building rockets, improving broadband access and reaching the International Space Station.
But she acknowledged that M&A will continue to play a role, “especially when you look at the world of AI.” SpaceX has an option to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion.
“I think we’re going to see more of that in general,” she said.
—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
Watch: Full CNBC interview with SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell
