What’s better than two private companies run by Elon Musk? One even larger company on the edge of going public.

That’s the optimistic case for supercharging Musk’s rocket firm SpaceX, with the acquisition of his AI startup xAI in a deal that values the private enterprise at $1.25 trillion.

Supercharge is not the verb that everyone would use, however. Skeptical internal shareholders and outside observers might see the mega merger as another instance of Musk self-dealing. Using one profitable company with a compelling story to swallow an unprofitable one with ambiguous and expensive AI ambitions isn’t so much a pitch as it is a corporate piggy bank.

But buying into the Musk trade can be a lucrative strategy. And clinging to his far-fetched plans has worked before.

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Months ahead of a widely expected IPO, SpaceX has spruced itself up, becoming an even more diversified and dynamic investment vehicle for the Musk trade.

If you don’t believe in Tesla’s vehicles, invest in SpaceX.

If you don’t like X, put your hopes in orbital data centers.

And if you’re looking for any kind of way to get in on the AI startup trade, Musk will soon have you covered.

In other words, the SpaceX merger is another big reason to get into the Musk business of dreaming big.

And the timing is just right. This is like staging a home about to go on the market. Only, instead of a bustling open house, we’ll soon get a historic IPO.

Another angle to consider, which gets at the motivation behind the deal, is how OpenAI and Anthropic will view Musk’s maneuver. There isn’t a shortage of private investors trying to bet big on the success of AI.

But there are levels to investment, and going public is the next one.

In the same way that OpenAI gained an advantage by releasing ChatGPT before anyone else’s chatbot, making a public debut before other pure AI players will benefit the first mover. Soaking up capital and retail investor excitement means there will be less leftover when OpenAI and Anthropic eventually make their Wall Street splash.

Musk, to his credit, knows that he is selling a story as much as a financial product. Terrestrial data centers with their power and land requirements are a dead end, he suggests. But data centers in space? “I mean, space is called ‘space’ for a reason,” Musk wrote in the deal announcement.

However amorphous AI companies’ ultimate goals seem to be, Musk is framing his AI company — like he did with Tesla and SpaceX — as a key component in a compelling near-future, sci-fi tale.