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SpaceX is offering employees a 20% salary increase to temporarily relocate to Memphis, Tennessee, or Southaven, Mississippi, to help expand its AI data centres and the Colossus supercomputer, NewsBytes reported. The company will also cover travel and related costs for the postings. The programme runs until December 31, 2026, and may be extended. SpaceX is recruiting staff for the supercomputer projects at both sites and does not require construction experience. The push reflects how central AI has become to the business. SpaceX earned $7.56 billion from AI last quarter, more than half of its total revenue. Colossus, first built by xAI in Memphis, became part of SpaceX after the two companies merged.

US stock futures fell sharply before Thursday’s open, with Nasdaq futures down 1.72% as investors again questioned whether heavy AI investment will pay off soon enough. Dow and S&P 500 futures also traded lower. The selling spread beyond technology. Bitcoin dropped 3.2%, and the CBOE Volatility Index rose 1.57 points to 18.25, ending a three-day decline. Chipmakers came under pressure in premarket trading, with Intel down 4.4% and AMD, Qualcomm, Marvell, Broadcom and Micron losing between 3% and 4.7%. IBM fell 4.7% despite beating third-quarter forecasts. The reversal came one day after strong results from SpaceX and Super Micro had lifted AI-linked stocks.

Cantor Fitzgerald has maintained its Overweight rating on Tesla with a $485 price target, about 25% above the stock’s current $386.47, saying it expects a merger with SpaceX to go ahead. Tesla and SpaceX have formed special committees at shareholders’ request to study a combination, and any deal would need about 50% approval from Tesla investors. Tesla shares rose 3.41%, while SpaceX jumped 7.79%. Tesla’s third-quarter revenue came in at $28.0 billion, just under the $28.3 billion forecast, though adjusted earnings of $0.48 per share beat expectations of $0.45. Other brokerages are split. CLSA upgraded Tesla to Hold with a $400 target, UBS set a $425 target and Goldman Sachs stayed Neutral at $360.

Nvidia shares fell 2.18% in early trading on Thursday, extending a 1.5% decline from the previous session as worries over AI chip demand and US export restrictions hit the stock. NVDA traded between $216 and $218 in premarket action, down from a recent close near $222 and below the $228 to $242 range it held in recent weeks. The weakness spread across popular retail tech names, pointing to a broader risk-off shift in crowded growth stocks. Financial disclosures show Donald Trump sold Nvidia shares worth between $500,001 and $1 million on August 21, 2026. Nvidia’s fundamentals remain strong, with revenue of about $216 billion, a gross margin near 74.7% and more than $62 billion in cash and short-term investments.

SpaceX and Tesla have set up a special committee to examine a possible merger, Elon Musk confirmed on Tuesday during SpaceX’s third-quarter earnings call. A combined company would be valued at about $3.5 trillion at current prices, making it the largest corporate merger on record. The current record is held by the SpaceX and xAI tie-up at $1.25 trillion. Musk said joining the two firms has merit given their heavy spending on AI, but stressed that no proposal has been agreed. Any deal would need approval from at least 50% of Tesla shareholders, he said. SpaceX ranks as the world’s seventh-largest company, while Tesla is 11th. Prediction markets put the odds of a merger by early 2027 above 50%.