Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management CEO Ross Gerber has suggested that SpaceX could end up stepping in to support Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in a deal that gets labeled a merger rather than a straight takeover. The comment lands as Gerber has also criticized Tesla’s product and spending priorities, including winding down Model S production to focus on Optimus even as investors debate the company’s long-term direction.
In a post on X, he wrote that the situation “looks more like SpaceX will be bailing out tesla,” with the structure framed as a merger and compared to how Musk-linked ventures have been handled around xAI and Twitter. Gerber added that he expects everything to be “wrapped up as one ball of Elon.”
Gerber’s broader critique has centered on Tesla pulling back from its highest-end cars, including the Model S, which he has called the “best EV ever made.” He has argued the company is even spending to dismantle a production line, calling the move “so counter productive versus building robots elsewhere” and adding, “This is just wrong.”
Is SpaceX Poised To Rescue Tesla?
The “bail out” framing is partly about corporate choreography: a SpaceX-Tesla tie-up could resemble prior Musk dealmaking where separate projects are brought under a tighter umbrella, according to X. That idea also intersects with Tesla’s previously announced $2 billion investment in SpaceX, a link that already binds the companies financially.
Another pressure point is autonomy expectations, after Elon Musk said vehicles running Hardware 3 would not reach Unsupervised Full Self-Driving. Musk has said Tesla could offer HW3 owners a path to swap to HW4 and update cameras, but the disclosure still resets timelines and raises cost questions.
Gary Black of The Future Fund LLC has said he expects Tesla’s valuation to take a hit if self-driving progress slows. Black also said Tesla’s planned $25 billion capital expenditure made sense in light of the company’s push into robotics.
Shifting Focus: Tesla’s High-End Departure
Ross Gerber has previously discussed how Tesla’s decision to end production of the Model S and Model X, which he labeled as the “best vehicles of all time,” reflects a significant shift in the company’s focus away from its traditional high-end offerings. In a recent post on X, Gerber expressed his concerns that this move could widen the competitive landscape as Tesla faces rising pressure from brands like BYD, which is gaining traction in the EV market.
This strategic pivot aligns with Gerber’s warnings regarding the potential delays in Tesla’s autonomous driving timeline, which may impact its market position in the luxury EV segment. As Tesla navigates these changes, the emphasis on robotics and AI, while crucial for future innovation, might detract from its automotive roots, further complicating its competitive landscape in the electric vehicle sector, as highlighted in his commentary about ending production of flagship models.
Understanding Teslas Shift Toward Robotics
The robotics pivot is already showing up in product planning, with Tesla emphasizing the Optimus humanoid robot as it pares back attention on Model S and Model X. Musk has said Optimus’ reveal would be closer to when production is expected, pointing to July and August as the relevant window.
Musk has also described an unusually aggressive competitive environment around Tesla’s work, saying, “We’ve found out our competitors literally do a frame-by-frame analysis and copy everything we’re doing.” That dynamic helps explain why Tesla might want more control over manufacturing scale, capital, and execution speed as it shifts away from legacy vehicle lines.
Outside Tesla, rivals are also trying to blend mobility and robotics, with Xpeng planning volume production of flying cars next year while expanding its humanoid robot efforts. Against that backdrop, a closer alignment between Tesla and SpaceX would fit a strategy focused on big-bet engineering programs rather than incremental vehicle refresh cycles.
How Musks Vision Could Transform Valuations
Gerber’s merger talk arrives alongside mixed market signals on Tesla’s setup, with Benzinga Edge Rankings flagging satisfactory momentum but weak value characteristics. The same data set points to a favorable long-term price trend despite near-term skepticism.
TSLA fell 3.56% to $373.72 at Thursday’s close and slipped another 0.14% to $373.18 in overnight trading. Gerber’s X post was timestamped 6:27 p.m. ET on Apr. 24, 2026, putting his SpaceX-Tesla scenario squarely into an already tense debate about where Musk is steering capital and attention.
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