Musk mulls merging SpaceX and Tesla

SpaceX + Tesla?: SpaceX and Tesla have each set up special committees to study a possible merger, Elon Musk said on Tuesday, the BBC reports. If concluded, the deal would create a company worth more than USD 3 tn, the biggest corporate tie-up ever, though Musk says winning over Tesla shareholders will be a “high hurdle.”

The Gulf angle: Saudi Arabia’s PIF owns just under 1% of SpaceX, as we reported in June. Saudi’s Humain, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund also hold SpaceX shares, which they got by backing Musk’s xAI before it merged into SpaceX in February, Semafor reports.

MEANWHILE- Anthropic’s big loss: Anthropic lost USD 80.7 bn in the first half of the year, according to a draft IPO prospectus seen by Reuters. Most of that — USD 72 bn — came from accounting charges rather than day-to-day business, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Spending big on computing: The company spent close to USD 9 bn on computing power in 1H, up from USD 2.3 bn a year earlier, the Journal says.