Elon Musk is once again rearranging the deck chairs of his own corporate ship, this time by folding artificial intelligence start-up xAI into SpaceX as the rocket maker edges closer to what could be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in modern markets. The deal, confirmed in regulatory filings in the state of Nevada, makes SpaceX the managing member of a new holding company that pulls together rockets, satellites, data, artificial intelligence (AI) and the X social media platform. There’s no mistaking the sort of consolidation Musk is looking for: one balance sheet, one story, and a valuation that could stretch to around US$1.25 trillion (A$1.799 trillion) if and when shares are offered to the public. Musk is betting that investors will buy into a tightly controlled, vertically integrated machine where launch vehicles feed satellites, satellites feed data, and data feeds AI models that can be sold to governments, defence agencies and corporations with deep pockets. As the financial anchor behind this manoeuvre, SpaceX - founded in 2002 - dominates commercial rocket launches and has become a key contractor to NASA, the U.S. space agency. It also owns Starlink, its satellite broadband network, with more than 9