Elon Musk reshapes his tech empire as SpaceX acquires XAI,
plus the Epstein scandal sends shockwaves across the Atlantic,
and the House prepares to vote as soon as today to end partial government shutdown.
We have a one vote margin, though, so what could go wrong?
That's fine.
It's Tuesday, February 3rd.
I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News,
the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.
We begin with a major tie-up as SpaceX is buying XAI,
a deal that brings together Elon Musk's well-established rocket business and his AI startup to form a one and a quarter trillion dollar company.
The merger was confirmed in a memo yesterday by Musk, saying the deal will,
quote, form the most ambitious vertically integrated innovation engine on and off Earth.
But as journal tech reporter Berber Gin explains, the move was unexpected,
as industry observers had anticipated that XAI would merge with Tesla instead.
We've reported that SpaceX is looking to go public as soon as the middle of this year.
And this merger definitely throws a little bit of a curveball in those ambitions
because SpaceX on its own is a profitable business.
And XAI, on the other hand, doesn't generate a lot of revenue,
but it burns through billions of dollars every year on computing costs.
So by merging the two companies together,