MADRID: Spain was preparing Friday to seize powers from Catalonia’s separatist government, pushing for regional elections as a way out of the country’s worst crisis in decades.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said a “critical point” had been reached and that his government had to act to stop the rule of law being “liquidated” as Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont refuses to drop his threat to declare a breakaway state.
Catalonia, a wealthy northeastern region that is fiercely attached to its own language and culture, held a chaotic referendum on Oct. 1 on whether to split from the rest of Spain.
The standoff between Puigdemont and Rajoy has since sparked huge street rallies, worried investors as Spain emerges from the financial crisis, and added to the woes of a EU already grappling with Brexit.
On Friday, hundreds of separatists queued at banks and cash machines in Catalonia, taking out large amounts of cash in protest against Madrid.
Taking Spain into uncharted legal waters, Rajoy’s Cabinet is due to meet Saturday to set out the specific powers it plans to take away from Catalonia, which currently enjoys wide autonomy including control over its own policing, education and health care.
“All the measures we take we will announce tomorrow,” Rajoy told a press conference in Brussels, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have given him strong backing.
Autonomy is a hugely sensitive issue in Catalonia, which saw its powers taken away under Spain’s military dictatorship.
There are fears of unrest if Madrid seeks to erode it, and Puigdemont has warned any such move could push regional lawmakers to declare unilateral independence.
Calls are mounting among major political parties — who have overcome their differences to work together on preventing a break-up of Spain — for fresh elections in the Catalan Parliament, which has been dominated by separatists since 2015.
Polls would give voters a say on Catalonia’s future in a way that was sanctioned by Madrid, unlike the referendum, which was ruled unconstitutional and saw a heavy police crackdown.
“The logic is that this process leads to elections,” said government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo.
Carmen Calvo, the chief negotiator for the Socialists, confirmed that the government and opposition agreed that elections should be called as early as January.
But Puigdemont’s number two Oriol Junqueras continued to pour cold water on the idea Friday, telling Catalunya Radio: “Calling elections now is not the best way forward.”
Spain urges polls as pressure mounts on Catalan separatists
Spain urges polls as pressure mounts on Catalan separatists
SpaceX acquires xAI in record-setting deal as Musk looks to unify AI and space ambitions
- The deal is the biggest M&A transaction of all time
- Deal values xAI at $250 billion, SpaceX at $1 trillion
Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk’s AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot. The deal, first reported by Reuters last week, represents one of the most ambitious tie-ups in the technology sector yet, combining a space-and-defense contractor with a fast-growing AI developer whose costs are largely driven by chips, data centers and energy. It could also bolster SpaceX’s data-center ambitions as Musk competes with rivals like Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Amazon-backed Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI sector.
The transaction values SpaceX at $1 trillion, and xAI at $250 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” Musk said. The purchase of xAI sets a new record for the world’s largest M&A deal, a distinction held for more than 25 years when Vodafone bought Germany’s Mannesmann in a hostile takeover valued at $203 billion in 2000, according to data compiled by LSEG. The combined company of SpaceX and xAI is expected to price shares at about $527 each, another person familiar with the matter said. SpaceX was already the world’s most valuable privately held company, last valued at $800 billion in a recent insider share sale. XAI was last valued at $230 billion in November, according to the Wall Street Journal. The merger comes as the space company plans a blockbuster public offering this year that could value it at over $1.5 trillion, two people familiar with the matter said.
SpaceX, xAI and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The deal further consolidates Musk’s far-flung business empire and fortunes into a tighter, mutually reinforcing ecosystem – what some investors and analysts informally call the “Muskonomy” – which already includes Tesla, brain-chip maker Neuralink and tunnel firm the Boring Company. The world’s richest man has a history of merging his ventures together. Musk folded social media platform X into xAI through a share swap last year, giving the AI startup access to the platform’s data and distribution. In 2016, he used Tesla’s stock to buy his solar-energy company SolarCity.
The agreement could draw scrutiny from regulators and investors over governance, valuation and conflicts of interest given Musk’s overlapping leadership roles across multiple firms, as well as the potential movement of engineers, proprietary technology and contracts between entities.
SpaceX also holds billions of dollars in federal contracts with NASA, the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies, which all have some authority to review M&A transactions for national security and other risks.
