Musk Calls WSJ Tesla‑SpaceX Merger Tale "Absurdly Fake News" — Markets Yawn, Memes Engaged 🚀

Elon Musk has rejected a Wall Street Journal report that Tesla is weighing a sale or spin‑off of its China operations to clear the path for a potential merger with SpaceX, calling the story "fake news" on X and later escalating the language to "Absurdly fake news." Tesla's China unit separately told a reporter from The Paper that the report is "false information," denying that any such separation plan is in motion.

The WSJ report, which cited people familiar with the matter, said Tesla executives had been instructed to prepare for the separation of its China business as part of broader merger deliberations between the electric‑vehicle maker and the privately held rocket company. No financial terms, timeline, structure, or transaction value were disclosed in the reporting, and the WSJ piece did not name the executives allegedly involved in the discussions.

Both companies remained silent on whether any formal merger talks have taken place. SpaceX, which is privately held and last valued at roughly $400 billion in secondary‑market transactions, has not publicly addressed the WSJ report, and Tesla has not filed any securities disclosures referencing a China divestiture or a SpaceX transaction. $BTC traded near prior levels during the news cycle and no direct price linkage between Musk's denial and crypto markets was established.

Industry analysts and investors tracked Musk's posts on X as the primary venue for his rebuttal, with the "Absurdly fake news" reply generating rapid engagement across social platforms. The episode adds to a recurring pattern of Musk dismissing major media reports on Tesla and SpaceX through direct posts, often within hours of publication.

Tesla operates its Shanghai Gigafactory as a wholly owned entity and the China business has been central to the company's global production footprint, though no quarterly revenue split for the China unit was disclosed in the denial. The dispute leaves the WSJ's underlying claims unsubstantiated by either side and the prospect of a Tesla‑SpaceX combination, if any exists, unconfirmed.