A SpaceX spacesuit is displayed in an exhibit at the Great American State Fair on July 2, 2026 in Washington, DC. Kevin Carter | Getty Images Hello, I’m Hui Jie, writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open. Elon Musk is a man of many companies, but he is now considering merging two of them, SpaceX and Tesla, and says there could be potential cooperation between software, chips and more. In the artificial intelligence space, investors are also increasingly wary of the huge amounts of money being poured into data centers. What you need to know todaySpaceX makes rockets and satellites, while Tesla makes electric cars. Both have increasingly ambitious plans for artificial intelligence. Soon they will be part of the same universe. In the United States on Tuesday, Elon Musk said during SpaceX’s third-quarter earnings call that combining the two companies would be a “good idea,” adding that their boards of directors had formed special committees to discuss a possible merger. Musk said there was considerable merit in uniting the companies, but he will not participate in the committees’ deliberations because he is a “conflicting party.” SpaceX itself reported third-quarter results that beat expectations, with revenue of $14.58 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $12.72 billion. Adjusted earnings were 45 cents per share, also significantly beating estimates of 13 cents. Musk’s companies may be making headlines for their business performance, but Musk himself faces accusations of crippling Ukraine’s military as it continues to fight the Russian invasion. Musk ordered a slowdown of a version of SpaceX’s Starlink that Ukraine has relied on in its war against Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter. SpaceX’s CEO “limited the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could remain connected to the satellite network,” the Journal reported. The decision left some Ukrainian drones virtually inoperable, according to the newspaper. One of the people who spoke to the media outlet claimed that Musk discussed the matter with several senior Trump administration officials, including the president himself, before imposing the Starlink speed limit. Earnings forecast for 2027, citing delays in obtaining additional power for its Melbourne facilities. The company lowered its revenue outlook to between A$475 million and A$500 million, from a previous range of A$615 million to A$640 million. It also substantially lowered its underlying earnings forecast. In South Korea, AI cloud and data center operator Elice provided another sign of volatility. Its shares plunged 32% in its market debut on Tuesday, before recovering nearly 30% on Wednesday. Japan’s exports slow In another sign of how enthusiasm for the AI sector may vary, Japan’s exports in September rose 16.7% from a year earlier, missing market expectations by a huge margin after analysts polled by Reuters had pegged export growth at 20.1%. This was the second consecutive month that Japan’s export growth slowed, after almost four years. Machinery exports also drove growth, with shipments of semiconductor-related machinery increasing 43.9% and exports of power generation machinery increasing 22.6%. This week, CNBC is bringing you interviews from some of the biggest names in tech from Nvidia’s GTC Berlin 2026 conference, including Chase Lochmiller, CEO of AI infrastructure and energy company Crusoe, and Marc Boroditsky, chief revenue officer at AI infrastructure firm Nebius.— Lim Hui Jie And finally… The world’s finance chiefs see new risks, and less angst over China. The world’s finance chiefs spent last week in Bangkok debating the biggest risk facing the global economy: debt, artificial intelligence and trade imbalances top the list. Meanwhile, China, long a major risk factor in these discussions, was no longer at the top of the list of concerns. CNBC was at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group. See what our journalists found were the top priorities among financial leaders.—Anniek Bao, Evelyn Cheng
