Elon Musk announced last week that special committees are discussing a potential merger between Tesla and SpaceX. Investors now speculate that the ticker symbol X could become available for the combined company. “If it closes, nobody should be surprised to see X back on the tape,” said Dave Mazza.
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Elon Musk has an affinity for the letter X. One of Tesla Inc.’s first vehicles was the Model X. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. goes by SpaceX. Twitter was rechristened as X after Musk acquired the social media platform in 2022. He even named his son X Æ A-Xii and often refers to him as “lil X” online.
Now, as the world’s richest man explores a combination between his two public companies, the market has left an opportunity for the taking: no stock currently trades under the ticker X, which was orphaned after United States Steel Corp. was acquired last year. Though it’s unknown if Musk will attempt to nab that symbol, or if a Tesla-SpaceX tie-up will even go through, investors and analysts have zeroed in on the auspicious timing.
“The merger has a ways to go, but if it closes, nobody should be surprised to see X back on the tape,” said Dave Mazza, chief executive officer of Roundhill Investments. “It’s entirely on brand.”
Musk serves as chief executive officer of both Tesla and SpaceX. He announced last week that special committees are discussing a merger after months of investor and analyst speculation. For now, the potential terms, structure, and timing of a deal are little more than a Wall Street guessing game.
Musk hasn’t publicly expressed a desire for the ticker. But he has been known to value certain figures and symbols more than most. His digital footprint is rife with the numbers 420 and 69, uses of the poop emoji, and of course, the letter X. His history with the letter stretches back to the dot-com days. Musk had founded a digital finance company, X.com, which later became a part of what is now PayPal Holdings Inc.
Single-character tickers are rare. Of the 26 letters in the English alphabet, only five — I, K, N, X and Y — offer available corresponding US stock tickers.
It’s not unfounded for tickers to change hands. In fact, the SPCX ticker currently employed by SpaceX belonged to a Tuttle Capital Management Nasdaq-listed SPAC fund until April.
Investors see an impetus for him to revamp a joint Tesla-SpaceX conglomerate, in ticker and in name. Both companies command strong brand recognition, but the scope of Musk’s goals — which span from chat bots to self-driving cars to orbital data centers — transcends the current nomenclature.
“Tesla still makes people think cars, and SpaceX makes people think rockets,” said Karobaar Capital’s chief investment officer, Haris Khurshid. “Neither really captures the ambitions he’s trying to tie together.”
If the merger goes through and Musk does choose to rename the resulting company, there’s a guess emerging on what he’ll choose: “X will probably mark that spot,” said Max Gokhman, senior vice president at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions. “That would be the most Musk thing ever.”