Elon Musk’s decision to merge SpaceX with artificial intelligence firm xAI has effectively created a trillion-dollar tech heavyweight — and quietly pulled one of the world’s biggest companies’ bitcoin positions back into focus as the company nears a public listing.
While the deal was framed around building “space-based AI,” the combined entity actually inherits SpaceX’s long-held bitcoin holdings, estimated at around 8,300 BTC based on previous disclosures.
At current prices, that stake is worth about $650 million — small compared to a potential IPO value north of $1 trillion, but big enough to matter for accounting, disclosure and investor optics.
SpaceX only disclosed its bitcoin purchase in 2021 and, unlike Musk’s energy company Tesla, has remained private, protecting the position from the quarter-to-quarter earnings volatility that public companies face under fair value accounting rules. That changes when the IPO preparation begins.
Tesla’s handling of its BTC remains a cautionary reference, as the automaker has posted hundreds of millions of dollars in paper losses during previous withdrawals, even when it made no changes to its holdings.
The SpaceX-xAI merger concentrates that exposure within a single corporate structure at a time when bitcoin has returned to extreme volatility following recent liquidation-driven selloffs.
Unlike Tesla, which has sold and bought back bitcoin in the past, SpaceX has shown little inclination to trade its position. This stability could appeal to long-term investors, but it also limits flexibility if market conditions deteriorate during the IPO.
The deal also raises questions about how crypto assets are managed across Musk’s wider empire. Tesla, SpaceX and xAI have operated under different disclosure regimes, accounting treatments and capital structures due to their different statuses as public and private companies.
