Musk has said he would back a merger of SpaceX and Tesla, as his rocket and AI company reported its first quarterly profit since going public, driven by deals to rent out computing power to AI firms.
Asked about a possible tie-up on a call with analysts, Musk said he felt he was "tap dancing through a minefield," but that a combination would be "a good idea."
Shares in SpaceX shot up nearly 5% in after-hours trading following the comments.
Musk said special committees of independent directors at both SpaceX and Tesla have been set up to study the idea at the request of shareholders.
He added that he could not take part in their talks because he has a conflict of interest.
Musk is chief executive of both companies, and also serves as chairman and chief technology officer of SpaceX.
He owned 48.4% of SpaceX as of June 30, according to a regulatory filing, and controls more than 82% of its voting power through super-voting shares.
He holds about 20% of Tesla.
The committees have not agreed on the terms of any deal and there is no guarantee they will, Musk said, cautioning that it would be overstating it to treat a merger as a certainty.
Any deal would need the backing of a majority of all Tesla shares, not just those cast in a vote, which Musk called "quite a high hurdle."
He said the two companies could gain from working together on AI software, chip design, robotics and space-based computing.
His remarks came after SpaceX posted net income of $4.4bn for the July-September period, compared with a loss of $1.1bn a year earlier.
Revenue jumped 161% to $14.6bn. The quarterly results follow a bumpy start on Wall Street.
SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq on June 12 after an IPO priced at $135 a share that raised about $85.7bn.
Its first earnings report as a listed company showed second-quarter revenue of $7.8bn and a net loss of $541mn.
The AI division, which SpaceX now calls "Super Intelligence," drove the turnaround. Super Intelligence is US President Donald Trump's preferred term for AI.
The unit's revenue rose more than nine times from a year earlier to $7.6bn, overtaking the Starlink satellite internet business as the company's largest source of sales.
SpaceX credited new cloud services agreements, wider adoption of its Grok chatbot and its acquisition of Cursor, an artificial intelligence coding startup.
SpaceX's cloud customers include Anthropic, which agreed in May to pay nearly $45bn over three years for computing power at SpaceX's Colossus data centers.
Google signed on in June, agreeing to pay $920mn a month from October through June 2029.
The AI unit turned an operating profit of $431mn, compared with a loss of $1.7bn a year earlier.
As with other AI companies, spending remains heavy.
SpaceX invested $19.6bn in the quarter, $16.4bn of it in AI, bringing capital spending for the first nine months of the year to $48bn.
Revenue at the Starlink satellite internet unit grew 69% to $5.2bn, and consumer subscribers reached 13.6mn.
Average monthly revenue per consumer, however, fell to $69 from $83 a year earlier.
SpaceX also completed the first revenue-generating flight of Starship, the giant rocket central to Musk's Mars ambitions and to deploying satellites at scale.
Netflix
Netflix shares dropped about 5% on Wednesday, after the company's tepid profit and advertising outlook deepened investor concerns about slowing viewership and revenue growth amid stiff competition in the streaming industry.
The stock has declined more than 26% this year and, if current losses hold, the streaming giant is set to shed about $13.4bn in market value.
The share performance underscores the mounting challenges facing Netflix — from losing a bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery earlier this year to defending its paid subscription model against free digital rivals and competing in an increasingly consolidated streaming market.
As viewers shift toward free, user-generated platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, Netflix is also contending with changing preferences in favor of short-form video over premium content.
Netflix, which has stopped sharing subscriber numbers since 2025, reported an 11.8% rise in third-quarter revenue to $12.87bn, in line with Wall Street estimates but the slowest increase in nearly three years.
The company also lowered its advertising forecast for 2026 to roughly $2.7bn, from about $3bn projected earlier.
"Growth has clearly slowed at Netflix," Evercore ISI analysts said in a note.
Evercore attributed the softness to market maturity; consistent competition from platforms like YouTube, Amazon and Disney; potential challenges from short-form content such as TikTok, YouTube; and content mis-execution.
In a post-earnings call, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos acknowledged that the company "could do better."
More than 20 brokerages have lowered their price targets on the stock following the results, according to LSEG data.
Sarandos said on Tuesday the company plans to focus on its core business of producing quality TV shows and movies to make Netflix a must-have service, and the recent executive shakeup was a step toward that goal.
The company recently replaced Chief Creative Officer Bela Bajaria and said film chief Dan Lin was departing, while also cutting 6% of its workforce.
Adidas
Adidas achieved record core profit in the third quarter, the German sportswear firm said on Tuesday, boosted by healthy sales and €200mn ($225mn) of refunded tariffs from the US government.
Core profit in the three months to the end of September was €1.01bn, Adidas said, up 37% on the same time last year.
"During the quarter, Adidas received the majority of its US tariff claims," it said in a statement, adding that profit margins were also boosted "by healthy full-price sales".
The US Supreme Court in February struck down many of the tariffs from US President Donald Trump's trade blitz from last year, finding the duties exceeded his powers to regulate commerce.
An August court filing said that the US government had accepted almost $130bn worth of refunds up to the end of July.
Adidas further raised its outlook for the year, expecting core profit of €2.5bn, up from €2.3bn.
The company's better-than-expected performance meant it would invest €100mn more than planned, it said.
General Motors
Higher commodity costs due to the US-Iran war overshadowed General Motors' solid earnings and a new share buyback announcement Tuesday, sending shares lower.
The Middle East conflict has fueled a surge in copper, steel and diesel prices, adding $400mn to costs for 2026, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said on an earnings conference call.
"We have seen a significant amount of inflation... really just in the last probably 10 weeks," he said.
Despite these dynamics, GM reported third-quarter profits of $3.3bn, more than double last year's level, which was marred by one-time costs connected to unwinding electric vehicle investments.
Revenues rose 2.9% to $50.1bn.
Although GM saw lower auto sales in North America and some other markets compared with the year-ago level, its average vehicle price of $52,000 was above last year's, reflecting "sustained" demand for large trucks and luxury vehicles, the company said.
GM plans to launch revamped models of the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks in the upcoming stretch.
"While the path forward is more challenging, we continue to believe that 2027 will be another strong year and better than 2026, assuming customer demand remains strong and commodity, logistics and other recent cost pressures moderate," Chief Executive Mary Barra told analysts.
The company has sharply slowed its EV ramp-up following regulatory changes enacted by US President Donald Trump. But GM reiterated plans for additional hybrid vehicles and will provide more details closer to the launches.
GM now forecasts full-year adjusted earnings of between $12.75 and $13.75 a share, a higher mid-point than the previous outlook.
However, Briefing.com noted that that midpoint of the range is below the level projected by Wall Street analysts.
"While internal drivers remain favorable, including lower EV losses, improving warranty expenses, and favorable vehicle mix, intensifying commodity and logistics costs and higher launch-related expenses are creating a more challenging earnings backdrop," said Briefing.com in a note.
Equity analysts at JPMorgan Chase described GM's results and outlook as largely in line in a note that pointed to questions about an outlook that describes 2027 as likely "better" but which is conditioned on moderating costs.
"GM has demonstrated strong execution over the last several years, we believe investors are likely to question conviction for now, given increasing commodity and logistics costs," among other questions, JPMorgan said.
GM's new $20bn shareholder repurchase plan follows the completion of its latest $6bn plan.
Presentation slides from the company emphasised its gradual reduction of outstanding shares over more than a decade as increasing "the potential for operating performance to translate into stronger per-share results."