SpaceX, Tesla Form Merger Committees as AI Becomes SpaceX’s Top Revenue Source

Musk called a merger a “good idea” but said he has a conflict of interest and cannot take part in the committees’ discussions; any deal would still need shareholder approval. SpaceX’s third-quarter revenue rose 161% year on year to $14.58 billion, and net profit was $4.4 billion, compared with a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier. AI revenue rose to $7.56 billion, nearly 10 times the year-earlier level. Reuters reported that the AI revenue mainly came from renting data-center capacity to customers including Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI, rather than mainly from its own models. Capital spending reached $19.6 billion in the quarter, including $16.4 billion for AI; SpaceX expects fourth-quarter capital spending of $35 billion to $40 billion. Starlink subscribers rose to 13.6 million, but average monthly revenue per user fell to $69 from $99 in 2023.

Anthropic’s draft IPO prospectus, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, showed a net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half of the year, about $72 billion of which came from accounting charges tied to changes in the value of financing instruments. Reuters, citing the report, said revenue for the six months to June 30 rose to $16.3 billion from $1.1 billion a year earlier, while AI infrastructure spending was nearly $9 billion, about four times the prior-year figure. The draft also showed potential spending of up to $750 billion on more computing power in coming years, including deals still under negotiation. Reuters separately reported that Anthropic told investors third-quarter revenue rose 45% quarter on quarter to $16.8 billion and that it was profitable on an adjusted basis.

Tencent’s Hunyuan team has grown to nearly 2,000 people a year after Yao Shunyu joined, LatePost reported. A Hunyuan member recalled that Yao roughly said the team could not avoid overtime the way DeepSeek does but could use competition to make DeepSeek work overtime, according to the report. Yao also proposed not publishing technical reports until the team became No. 1, with targets including world No. 1, the report said. He moved the model application center and search algorithm center into the business group that houses Yuanbao, and sent post-training staff to help Yuanbao optimize its access to DeepSeek when Hunyuan’s own pretraining model was not ready, according to the report.

Qualcomm plans global performance-based layoffs, with notices to begin in November, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters. CEO Cristiano Amon called the move “performance-focused workforce reductions” aimed at strengthening a performance culture and addressing persistent underperformance. Amon said the decisions would consider business priorities, organizational needs and skills. The memo did not specify the number of job cuts. Qualcomm has been pushing into AI data centers and other non-smartphone businesses and has forecast that non-smartphone businesses will contribute most of its chip sales revenue by fiscal 2027. The briefing also reported that CATL’s third-quarter revenue rose nearly 60% year on year and net profit attributable to shareholders rose 14.54%.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Oct. 20 opened a public consultation on five mandatory national standards for vehicle lighting and light-signal devices. The draft would use a dedicated blue-green light for automated-driving system marker lamps and bar vehicles without L3 or higher autonomous-driving systems from installing them, drawing a distinction between L2 driver assistance and L3 conditional automation. It would also bar text displays on lamp functions except for illuminated logos, restrict gesture operation and voice shutdown, and require voice-on to indicate the manual switch position. The ministry proposed implementation from Jan. 1, 2028, with transition arrangements for already type-approved models. At a State Council Information Office briefing the same day, MIIT said some automakers are rushing products and testing insufficiently. A draft notice from four departments would bring hidden door handles, electric suction doors, virtual controls and environmental-adaptability test parameters into access and production-consistency management; products not declared or tested as required would not be admitted. It would require at least 30,000 km of reliability testing and at least one year of environmental testing including two winters and one summer, and automakers would have to test battery cycle life and durability themselves rather than directly relying on supplier reports. The notice is still in consultation.

Waymo said on Oct. 20 that it would begin preparations for an autonomous ride service in Madrid, with the goal of carrying its first passengers in 2027. Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will appear on local streets in the coming days, first driven manually and later by trained local autonomous-driving specialists in the driver’s seat for technical validation. The company said it is talking with Spanish national, regional and local governments, briefing emergency services and engaging local partners; the Madrid project is a phased test and service-preparation plan, not yet a public driverless ride service.

A report by Owl & Co. obtained by The Hollywood Reporter said about two-thirds of vertical short dramas released by 20 leading platforms outside China in the third quarter of 2026 were AI-generated, up from 3% in the first quarter and 28% in the second. Among paid short-drama apps ranked by watch minutes, only one of the top five and two of the top 20 titles were live-action. Live-action titles remained more likely than AI works to stay in the top 10% by views 30 days after release, and the number of live-action short dramas grew alongside AI titles, the report said.

First Financial, citing insurance-registration data, separately reported that no main model from BMW, Mercedes-Benz or Audi reached 10,000 retail sales in September in China; the BMW 3 Series was closest at 9,975. BMW and Mercedes-Benz passenger-car sales in China fell 24.8% and 31% year on year in the third quarter to 114,000 and 87,000, respectively, the report said. It also cited Wilson terminal monitoring data saying Nio’s China sales, including its Onvo brand, surpassed all three German luxury automakers for the first time in the quarter; different statistical systems use different brand scopes, and insurance-registration retail data should be read separately from manufacturer delivery figures.