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Economics

Feb 13, 2026 Yanis Varoufakis

More often than not, share prices are rigged, which is why they are a dreadful predictor of profitability even on average, and why they have become the primary instrument for transferring wealth upwards. The SpaceX-xAI merger tells much of this sorry tale.

ATHENS – The recent merger of SpaceX and xAI, a financial spectacle greeted with celebratory yelps from the usual quarters, is a sight for sore eyes. More accurately, it is a sight for eyes still sore from what they witnessed 25 or so years ago, when Wall Street’s perfection of the dark art of corporate mergers sent phoney valuations into the stratosphere, before they crashed back to Earth. As Elon Musk cashes in, we are left staring at a perennial flaw of modern capitalism: a market forever eager to buy its own illusions.