Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review - SpaceX and xAI merge, Nvidia and OpenAI's funding relationship and U.S. TikTok's rough start
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Feb 6, 2026 Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired who covers tech, AI and space business. He breaks down SpaceX folding xAI into its orbit of companies. He talks Nvidia and OpenAI's shifting funding dance. He also covers the rocky U.S. TikTok relaunch and its infrastructure and data changes.
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Merging AI With Rocket Business Boosts Fundraising
- Combining SpaceX and xAI lets Elon Musk shelter a loss-making AI unit inside a profitable rocket and Starlink business.
- Paresh Dave says that consolidation can help raise more capital for costly projects like Starship and space data centers.
Starship Success Is Key To Space Data Centers
- Space-based data centers are plausible but depend on Starship becoming reliably cheaper to launch.
- Paresh Dave notes each Starship launch still costs over $100 million and success is required to make orbital data centers viable.
Consolidation Calms Investor Distrust
- Folding related Musk ventures together may reduce investor complaints about his divided attention.
- Paresh Dave says combining companies can simplify investor understanding and soothe concerns about Musk's many projects.