SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell has not ruled out a potential merger with another of Elon Musk's companies, the publicly traded trillion-dollar giant Tesla Motors (TSLA).

As SpaceX prepares for its historic listing on the Nasdaq, which is set to be the largest IPO ever, Shotwell stated in an interview with CNBC that combining the two companies "might make things a little easier for Elon."

Earlier this year, Musk integrated SpaceX with his artificial intelligence company xAI; he had previously merged xAI with the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

On the eve of this landmark IPO and SpaceX's official debut on the Nasdaq, Shotwell, Musk's second-in-command, did not dismiss the future possibility of a merger with the similarly valued Tesla.

In a Friday interview with CNBC's Morgan Brennan, Shotwell remarked that integrating the two firms "might make things a little easier for Elon."

Through his ownership stakes in both companies, Musk has officially become the world's first trillionaire. He holds over 80% of the voting power at SpaceX, maintaining tight control over major decisions, and also serves on the board of Tesla, wielding significant influence within the company.

Shotwell, the COO of SpaceX and an early employee who joined at its founding in 2002, indicated that regardless of whether a merger occurs in the coming years, she currently has a substantial amount of work to focus on. SpaceX's market capitalization at its opening exceeded $2 trillion, surpassing Tesla and making it the sixth-largest company by market value in the United States.

"In the long term, there are many points of convergence in the development goals of our two companies, but my immediate priority is ensuring the smooth operation of all our current business lines," Shotwell said.

Musk has a precedent of consolidating his various business entities.

In February of this year, he completed the merger of SpaceX with his AI startup xAI, resulting in a combined entity valued at $1.25 trillion. Musk stated at the time that the core purpose of the deal was to better build an "orbital space data center."

This acquisition provided SpaceX with a full suite of computing data centers, the Grok large language model, AI chatbots, and image generation tools; it also incorporated the social platform X, which Musk had merged with xAI in early 2025.

CNBC has previously reported that Tesla and SpaceX already share resources such as engineers, and Musk has frequently discussed the concept of merging the two companies. Tesla had previously invested in xAI, thereby indirectly holding a stake in SpaceX.

Shotwell acknowledged the high degree of alignment in the two companies' development trajectories, but noted her current work remains centered on core aerospace operations like rocket development, expanding Starlink broadband, and missions to the International Space Station.

However, she also conceded that mergers and acquisitions will remain a significant tool for corporate growth, "especially in the field of artificial intelligence." SpaceX holds an option to acquire the AI code development startup Cursor for $60 billion.

"Overall, we are likely to see more such acquisition and integration cases in the future," she added.