Could SpaceX invest up to $10 billion in Skydance? John Malone floats possible deal

Elon Musk’s SpaceX could potentially invest as much as $8 billion to $10 billion in Skydance, according to media mogul John Malone, although there is currently no confirmation that such a transaction is being negotiated.

Speaking at the Paley Center for Media’s International Council Summit in New York on Wednesday, Malone speculated that SpaceX could make a sizeable investment in the newly formed Skydance, which emerged from the $111 billion combination of Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery earlier this month.

“These guys are very intertwined,” Malone said of Musk and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, whose son David Ellison is chairman and CEO of Skydance. Malone suggested a potential investment could also involve a global output agreement for Skydance content, possibly involving Musk-owned X.

Crucially, Malone presented the idea as a prediction rather than announcing a deal. Skydance declined to comment, while a representative for Musk did not respond to Variety’s request for comment.

The financial logic is clear enough to fuel the speculation. Skydance emerged from the Paramount-Warner Bros merger carrying roughly $80 billion in net debt and is targeting $6 billion in cost savings over three years. It aims to reduce net debt to adjusted EBITDA from about seven times to three times by the end of 2029.

There are also existing financial links between the two camps. Larry Ellison invested around $1 billion in Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022, a relationship Malone cited while discussing the possibility.

The speculation also comes as Musk explores further consolidation within his own business empire. SpaceX and Tesla have formed committees to examine a potential combination, although Musk said this week that such a merger was not a certainty.

For the media industry, a SpaceX-Skydance arrangement would be notable not simply as another technology investment in Hollywood. If it included content distribution, it could tie together capital, premium entertainment IP and Musk-controlled distribution infrastructure. For now, however, that remains a scenario floated by Malone rather than an announced transaction.