Media mogul John Malone predicted Wednesday that Elon Musk's SpaceX could strike a multibillion-dollar investment and distribution deal with Skydance, just two weeks after the company completed its $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to TheWrap's report from the Paley International Council Summit in New York.
Speaking with Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries, Malone suggested the companies could reach a global content-distribution agreement involving as much as $8 billion to $10 billion in cross-investment. The potential partnership could give SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service a foothold in Hollywood content distribution while providing financial backing to Skydance, which is navigating a substantial debt load and the integration of two major media companies. Malone did not indicate that negotiations were underway.
"I think there's a deal coming there," Malone said, pointing to the financial ties between Musk and Oracle founder Larry Ellison — David Ellison's father and a major backer of Skydance. Malone noted that Larry Ellison helped finance Musk's acquisition of Twitter, now X, and pointed to Ellison's use of Tesla stock to help finance his son's Hollywood ambitions. "I would not doubt for a minute that before very long, you're gonna see an announcement," Malone added.
Malone, the former chair emeritus of Warner Bros. Discovery, also urged David Ellison to retain the creative talent behind HBO and Warner Bros. while finding ways to transition the company's declining linear television business toward streaming. Representatives for Skydance and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The prediction underscores how the $110 billion Skydance combination has rewired Hollywood's dealmaking imagination: with the industry's largest players now carrying tech-scale debt loads, even satellite internet looks like a potential content partner. Whether Malone's forecast proves prescient or merely provocative, it signals where the next wave of media consolidation money may come from.