Jan 29 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX is considering a potential merger with ​Tesla as well as an ‌alternative combination with artificial-intelligence company xAI, Bloomberg News ‌reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Tesla’s shares were up 3% after the bell following the report.

SpaceX ⁠and xAI are ‌in discussions to merge ahead of a blockbuster public offering ‍planned for later this year, Reuters exclusively reported earlier on Thursday, to bring Musk’s ​rockets, Starlink satellites, the X social ‌media platform and Grok AI chatbot under one roof.

The space firm has discussed the feasibility of a tie-up between SpaceX and EV-maker Tesla, an idea ⁠that some investors are ​pushing, the Bloomberg report ​said.

Any deal could attract sizeable interest from infrastructure funds and Middle ‍Eastern sovereign ⁠investors, some of the people told Bloomberg.

SpaceX and Tesla did not immediately ⁠respond to Reuters requests for comment.

(Reporting by ‌Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing ‌by Pooja Desai)