What do brain implants, space rockets, and electric cars have in common?
Elon Musk, Tesla’s executive billionaire, said he was open to joining his various businesses under one umbrella, similar to Google’s corporate shake-up five years ago.
“Good idea,” Musk tweeted after being so launched the idea by David Lee, Tesla investor and YouTuber. On Wednesday on Twitter, Lee suggested to Musk that he create a holding company called “X” that would be Tesla’s parent company, the SpaceX rocket, the tunnel suit The Boring Company and Neuralink.
It’s unclear whether Musk is seriously considering the decision or simply humiliating one of his 41 million Twitter followers, as he often does.
Regardless, there is a remarkable precedent: Google formed a new parent company called Alphabet in 2015 to host the signature search engine and Internet service operation alongside its other companies, such as the vehicle unit. self-employed Waymo and artificial intelligence firm DeepMind
There are many persistent questions about how Musk would execute a similar restructuring, such as whether Company X would be publicly traded as Tesla or privately as SpaceX, The Boring Company and Neuralink.
But Lee argues that the measure will make it easier for the second richest man in the world to oversee his existing businesses and start new ones. In addition, he noted, Musk already owns the domain name of X.com, an online bank he founded in 1999.
“This is not a move focused on increasing market capitalization or stock prices,” Lee said on Twitter. “Rather, it’s a movement focused on creating the structure so that Elon can continue to bet on humanity and have time to manage them.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The stock price of the electric car maker rose about 2.7 percent, to $ 663.61 at 11:45 a.m.