Tesla's deals with Musk's other companies: every related-party transaction in the 2026 proxy

Elon Musk runs or controls several companies besides Tesla, and they do business with each other. Every year, Tesla has to list those deals in its proxy statement under "related person transactions". The 2026 proxy, published ahead of the December 3 shareholder meeting, gives the most complete picture so far. Here is what it shows, company by company.

Why these deals are disclosed

When a company trades with a business linked to one of its directors or top executives, there is a risk that the terms favour the insider rather than ordinary shareholders. US rules therefore require disclosure, and Tesla's own policy says its Audit Committee, made up of independent directors, must review and approve such transactions. Tesla states that deals with director-linked companies are done on terms no less favourable than it would get from an unrelated party.

The numbers, company by company

The figures below cover all of 2025, plus January and February 2026 where Tesla reported them.

• xAI (now part of SpaceX): Tesla's biggest related customer. It recognised about $430.1 million of revenue from xAI in 2025 and $78.1 million in the first two months of 2026, mainly for Megapack batteries. Tesla also paid xAI about $4.0 million for services in 2025, and earned about $0.3 million for consulting and support it provided.
• SpaceX: about $143.3 million of revenue in 2025, mostly from selling vehicles at prices generally available to other buyers. Bloomberg has reported that SpaceX likely bought more than $100 million worth of Cybertrucks in late 2025. Tesla in turn paid SpaceX about $11.4 million under commercial, licensing and support agreements, and about $0.4 million for using a SpaceX-owned aircraft.
• X: about $3.3 million spent on advertising on the platform in 2025, as part of a wider campaign.
• The Boring Company: about $0.9 million in expenses under commercial agreements.
• Musk's security company: Tesla paid about $4.8 million in 2025, and $1.3 million in early 2026, to a security firm owned by Musk that protects him, including during his work for Tesla. The proxy says this is only part of the total cost of his security.

The $2 billion investment

The largest single item is not a sale at all. In January 2026, Tesla agreed to invest about $2 billion in xAI's parent company, along with a framework for possible future collaboration. When SpaceX took over xAI on February 2, 2026, that right turned into a right to buy SpaceX shares. Tesla completed the roughly $2 billion purchase of SpaceX Class A stock on March 12, 2026.

Not only Musk

The list also covers other directors. Tesla bought about $3.3 million of goods and services from Redwood Materials, the battery recycler run by board member JB Straubel, and sold it about $12.9 million of scrap material. A son-in-law of director Jack Hartung works at Tesla as a program manager, with 2025 pay of about $150,000.

Why it matters

Measured against Tesla's size, most of these amounts are small. The exceptions are the Megapack sales to xAI and the $2 billion stake, which ties part of Tesla's balance sheet to the value of SpaceX.

Supporters see the links as useful: Musk's companies share technology, buy each other's products and can move faster together. Critics argue that each deal raises the question of whose interest comes first, and that the growing web of ties makes oversight harder for Tesla's independent directors. That debate has become sharper since Tesla and SpaceX set up committees to study a possible merger.

What to watch next

• Megapack deliveries: whether sales to SpaceX's AI data centres keep growing in 2026.
• The SpaceX stake: how Tesla reports the value of its holding now that SpaceX is listed.
• Merger talks: a combination would turn many of these related-party deals into internal transactions.

This article is for information only and is not financial advice.