News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Tesla-SpaceX merger speculation kept alive
AUSTIN: Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk has left the door open to the electric vehicle (EV) maker merging with his other trillion-dollar-plus-valued firm SpaceX, declining to dismiss the possibility and citing growing overlap between the companies. "As you can tell from the many collaborations on so many fronts with SpaceX, there's more and more overlap," Musk said on Tesla's earnings call. "We can't talk about, you know, combining companies and that kind of thing on an earnings call," he added. "It's got to be done with the appropriate process." Investors and analysts have long speculated about the possibility of combining Musk's EV and space firms, with the discussion intensifying during SpaceX's record US$75bil initial public offering process. After Musk's comments, he called on Tesla General Counsel Brandon Ehrhart, who stuck to boilerplate language calling SpaceX a "great partner" that provides "numerous beneficial transactions". Gene Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management, said the call left him more convinced the companies were destined to be joined over the next few years. "I would put the odds that these two will combine at 90% today," he said in a video posted on social media. "If you were going to ask me yesterday I would have said it's 80%." Tesla already supplies batteries and manufacturing technologies for some SpaceX projects, while the companies are jointly developing Terafab. Terafab is a semiconductor manufacturing facility designed to produce artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Proponents argued that combining the companies could simplify Musk's corporate empire and create a more integrated company spanning AI, robotics, manufacturing, energy and space infrastructure. JPMorgan analysts said this month that "operational integration between the two entities is already deep". They cited shared engineering talent, AI infrastructure, Terafab and Musk's leadership as factors that "would facilitate an eventual combination". Stifel analysts struck an even more bullish note, writing that "many investors consider it inevitable that Musk will move to combine SpaceX with Tesla - for them the question is not if but when." SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell has also acknowledged potential benefits, telling CNBC in June that folding the companies together "might make Elon's life a little easier" by streamlining management across his businesses. Others, however, caution that any transaction could face formidable hurdles. In the same research note, JPMorgan pointed to the "practical bottleneck" of getting regulatory approvals for both companies. This is particularly in China, where national security concerns over SpaceX's US government ties could pose problems. Analysts also noted that Musk controls a much larger voting stake in SpaceX than in Tesla, complicating governance considerations for Tesla's public shareholders. -- Reuters
SpaceX moves Starship launch attempt to Thursday
July 19 (Reuters) - SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company said in a statement on Sunday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X later on Sunday that the next Starship launch would occur on Friday, contradicting the earlier statement from his company. He did not say whether the original Thursday date was wrong. On July 16, SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value. SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system to address the engine issue experienced on the previous flight. A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known for dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon. On Friday, SpaceX said it would attempt the launch on July 20. The company has launched 12 Starship test flights since 2023. On its 13th flight test, Starship will carry 20 Starlink satellites to demonstrate its satellite-dispensing system and the Starlink network's laser communication links, but those satellites will follow the ship's suborbital trajectory and burn up in Earth's atmosphere soon after deployment. In its prospectus, SpaceX said that it aims to launch the first Starlink satellites to orbit on Starship by year's end, followed by routine launches. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Musk's SpaceX in talks to supply the Pentagon with computing power, WSJ reports
July 17 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX is in talks to providethe U.S. Department of Defense with access to data center capacity worth billions of dollars to run AI models, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Such an agreement would extend the Pentagon's existing relationship with SpaceX, a key partner for rocket launches and satellite-based communications and missile tracking. According to the report, SpaceX employees have discussed plans to compete more directly with neocloud firms such as CoreWeave by selling computing capacityto AI customers at lower prices. Like many large enterprises, the Defense Department is moving to secure additional cloud-computing capacity to support intelligence agencies and military AI applications. Amazon said late last year it would invest up to $50 billion to expand AI and supercomputing capacity for U.S. government customers through its Amazon Web Services cloud business. Discussions between SpaceX and the Pentagon are ongoing and could still fall apart, WSJ reported. SpaceX and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report. The space firm has made similar deals in recent months. In June, SpaceX signed a multi-year cloud services agreement with Alphabet's Google, providing access to about 110,000 Nvidia chips and related computing infrastructure. Anthropic said in May it had struck a deal to use the full computing power of SpaceX's Colossus 1 facility in Memphis, gaining 300 megawatts of new capacity. (Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
SpaceX IPO earns millions for US Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler
WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler multiplied the value of her investment in Elon Musk's SpaceX after she was nominated for the job, earning millions of dollars from the company's record initial public offering, a Reuters review of her financial disclosures showed. Loeffler investedbetween $1 million and $5 million as of January 3, 2025, in xAI, Musk's AI and social media firm that has since merged with SpaceX, according to a required financial disclosure submitted before she became SBA's administrator. Later in 2025, Loeffler invested again in SpaceX and xAI between $1 million and $5 million, according to a separate financial disclosure covering her investments for all of 2025 that she signed on May 14, 2026. Reuters obtained the form from the SBA on June 12. Loeffler's second investment has not been previously reported. Two independent government ethics attorneys agreed with Reuters' assessment of Loeffler's disclosure. Cabinet members use ranges to declare the value of their assets on their required financial disclosure forms, and they do not disclose the dates of their investments before taking office. SpaceX is a military contractor for the U.S. government. Federal law prohibits cabinet members from participating in decisions involving a company in which they have a financial interest. Public records do not show a financial relationship between SBA and xAI or SpaceX. xAI was not included on the public list of AI toolsused by SBA employees in 2025. Loeffler and her team did not respond to multiple requests for comment about her SpaceX investment. VALUE OF SPACEX INVESTMENT SOARS Loeffler's bet on SpaceX paid off. The company priced the biggest-ever U.S. IPO on June 12, valuing the space, satellite and AI provider at $1.77 trillion. Her first investment in xAI would have been worth between $7 million and $2.6 billion on the day of the IPO, depending on the exact amount she invested and the date she made it, said Franco Granda, analyst at data provider PitchBook. The second investment would have been worth between $2.2 million and $25.4 million that day, he said. The earlier the investment, the more it would have been worth at the IPO, he said. xAI's valuation increased by more than 7,000% between its first investment round and January 5, 2025. SpaceX's valuation more than doubled in 2025. At least 10 Trump administration officials listed investments in SpaceX or xAI on their 2025 financial disclosure forms. None of those officials works for the Defense Department. Billionaire Musk, a former Trump adviser, is the founder and CEO of SpaceX. Loeffler initially invested in xAI via a private placement, according to her disclosure form. Private placements are typically open to select individuals and institutions with significant financial resources. Loeffler is a wealthy businesswoman. She was the founding chief executive at Bakkt, a bitcoin trading platform, and spent 16 years working at Intercontinental Exchange, the firm that owns the New York Stock Exchange, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is married to Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeffrey Sprecher. Loeffler briefly represented Georgia in the Senate. The SBA helps entrepreneurs start and build their small businesses, according to the agency website. It connects business owners with lenders and funding to help them recover from natural disasters, among other responsibilities. The Senate confirmed Loeffler as SBA administrator on February 19, 2025. (Reporting by Courtney RozenEditing by Chris Sanders and Rod Nickel)
SpaceX's Starship rocket aborts before liftoff, Musk says launch probable next week
WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas on Thursday as some of its 33 engines failed to start, with CEO Elon Musk saying it will likely try to launch again early next week. Shares of SpaceX, which went public last month, fell about 3% in aftermarket trading following the scrubbed launch. The stock ended at $131.11 on Thursday, closing below its IPO price of $135 for the first time since listing. "Some of the engines didn't start, triggering an automatic launch abort," Musk said in a post on X, without disclosing the number of engines on the Super Heavy rocket that did not start. "To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week." The launch abort came less than a second before Starship's planned liftoff from Starbase, SpaceX's company town in south Texas, at 5:45 p.m. CT (2245 GMT). The rocket's engines ignited but cut off shortly after. "We did trigger a hold on the booster that aborted our liftoff as we were starting to light those Raptor engines," said SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot, speaking on the company's live stream after the launch was scrubbed. (Reporting by Joey Roulette and Chris Thomas; Editing by Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)
Canada regulator cited Anthropic's Claude Mythos in warning to banks on cyber risks, email shows
TORONTO, July 13 (Reuters) - Canada's federal banking regulator warned the country's largest financial institutions about the risks of Anthropic's Claude Mythos and other advanced AI models, saying the new technology could increase cyber threats and reduce the time institutions have to identify and fix vulnerabilities, according to an email sent in April. The regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, sent the email to chief technology officers, chief information security officers, and chief risk officers across the financial industry, including the big banks and insurers, according to documents Reuters obtained through an access-to-information request. Regulators globally are trying to assess cybersecurity risks such as Anthropic's frontier AI model Mythos. Cybersecurity experts say Mythos, an AI model described as extremely capable at finding and exploiting cybersecurity vulnerabilities, poses significant challenges to the banking industry and its legacy technology systems. "Advanced artificial intelligence models, such as Anthropic Claude Mythos, significantly compress the timeframe for effective risk mitigation," OSFI said in the email. "Accordingly, this bulletin is grounded in our existing guidance and outlines sound practices that institutions can adopt to enhance the speed and effectiveness of risk identification, mitigation and response." Additional contents of the email were redacted due to some sections of the Access to Information Act. An acknowledgment of the risks of Mythos from OSFI could ensure Canadian banks, insurers and other regulated institutions invest in technology to protect clients from cyber risks. After Reuters sent questions to OSFI last week, the regulator on Monday posted a public bulletin on generative and agentic artificial intelligence online. "OSFI takes a technology‑neutral, risk‑focused approach to emerging technologies, including advanced artificial intelligence models such as Mythos. Our focus is not the technology itself, but how federally regulated financial institutions govern and manage the risks associated with its use," the regulator said in an emailed response to Reuters questions. In early April, Canadian bank executives met with regulators to discuss the risks posed by Mythos shortly after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell convened an urgent meeting with bank CEOs to warn of cyber risks posed by Anthropic's latest artificial intelligence model. OSFI sent the email to company executives on April 29. RAPIDLY CHANGING LANDSCAPE OSFI is responsible for regulating and maintaining the stability of Canada's financial sector, from banks to pension funds, and identifying risks emerging from foreign interference, geopolitics and new technology. The cyber capabilities of some frontier AI systems are considered so powerful that access has been restricted, with euro zone banks currently excluded from Mythos. Anthropic has also had a tumultuous relationship with the U.S. government.A judge blocked its initial blacklisting by the Pentagon in March, and the conflict has eased following the private release of Anthropic's Mythos. Three of Canada's big six banks - Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank and BMO - have outlined a plan to earn millions from their investments in AI as the banks moved from experimental AI projects to applying them in chatbots, building internal tools and lowering their reliance on third-party tools. Bank of Nova Scotia, CIBC and National Bank have also disclosed several AI initiatives. The Canadian government has said it has access to Anthropic's Project Glasswing, which allows companies to have access to Mythos. It is not clear which, if any, banks in Canada are using it.Some banks deferred comments to the Canadian Bankers Association, which said banks have invested heavily to protect the financial system and are complying with robust requirements from OSFI on cyber risk management and incident reporting.In an interview in June, RBC's chief technology officer Bruce Ross said Mythos underscored a shift in the cyberattack landscape, making it imperative for organizations to respond rapidly since attack methods can emerge as soon as new vulnerabilities are identified. "The way we're (the industry) dealing with it is, building our own AI defenses... we'll continue to do that," Ross said. (Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Toronto; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Deepa Babington)
