In this week’s wrapup, we discuss the Tesla-SpaceX merger, the disparity in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) spending in India, Anthropic’s IPO, Swiggy’s latest financial results, and why cutting long-term capital gains tax on equities is a hot topic in the market right now.

The Tesla-SpaceX merger explained

Last week, Elon Musk unveiled a new Tesla Roadster with rocket thrusters that let it briefly fly. While this is a neat little trick, the demonstration hinted that Musk’s companies are starting to overlap in ways that could bring them closer together, and he has now publicly backed merging Tesla and SpaceX into a conglomerate worth roughly $3.5 trillion.

The logic is somewhat straightforward. Together, they could share money, talent, and computing power, and connect the entire chain from custom chips and AI models to robots, vehicles, and satellites. But combining everything under one roof comes with its own problems. 

SpaceX’s plans could demand enormous investments with no returns anytime soon, leaving Tesla shareholders, who signed up for an electric-vehicle business, with far more exposure to rockets and AI infrastructure. 

And with Musk owning roughly 20% of Tesla and about half of SpaceX, with 85% of its voting rights, the terms of the deal could easily favour one set of shareholders over the other. 

So would a Tesla-SpaceX merger create real value for public shareholders?

Read our full story to find out.

Why does CSR money go to richer states?

Since 2014, large companies have had to spend 2% of their average net profits on social causes. In FY25, that came to around ₹40,000 crore. But here’s the catch. Five industrialised states, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi and Tamil Nadu, received over half of it, while all eight northeastern states together got barely a tenth of Maharashtra’s share.

The reason? Companies usually spend near the places where they operate, and those are often the wealthier states. Education and healthcare also attract the most funding because their results are easy to count.

So, are there any fixes that can make the system better? Read our full story to find out.

Anthropic’s IPO explained

Anthropic made its IPO document public last week, and its business is pretty interesting. We all know what Anthropic does, but just for context, it develops AI models and sells access to customers. It also has other products, such as the Claude Platform, which allows businesses and developers to use these models to build their own products and workflows. And then there are ready to use applications such as Claude Code and Claude Cowork.

All of this has helped Anthropic generate around $4.5 billion in revenue in FY25, a whopping 1,000% more than the previous year. And its revenue growth has only picked up pace since then. But funnily enough, all that growth hasn’t translated into profits just yet. One obvious reason is that AI models and platforms cost a fortune to run. That’s also probably why Anthropic is looking to raise money from public investors, even after having raised billions from private investors over the years.

The market is closely watching how the IPO pans out, and there’s plenty of excitement around it. But before jumping in, there are a few things investors need to understand about Anthropic and its business. That’s what we covered in Wednesday’s newsletter. You can read it here.

Is Instamart eating Swiggy alive?

Since listing in 2024, Swiggy has fallen by more than half and recently hit a record low. Now, initially, that suggests a business that can’t grow or is bleeding cash. But the numbers say otherwise. In the September quarter this year, revenue grew 34% and adjusted EBITDA grew over 40% from the previous year.

So why are investors losing confidence? 

Well, food delivery is already an established business with limited room to grow. But quick commerce, on the other hand, lets Swiggy tap into everyday spending on groceries, electronics, and household essentials. But winning that market means investing heavily in dark stores and repeat customers, and doing so against rivals like Blinkit and Zepto, who already have a sizeable lead.

So can Swiggy narrow the gap with Blinkit before the cost of chasing it outweighs the returns?

Read Thursday’s newsletter to find out.

Will cutting LTCG tax on equities bring foreign investors back?

There seems to be a hot discussion in the market right now about how foreign investors are pulling money out of India because the taxation on equities is too high for them. Owing to this, lot of analysts want the government to restructure the long-term capital gains tax on equities. They think that this foreign money, which we’re losing, can actually come back if the government reduces the tax. To understand whether this makes sense, we have to understand two things:

1. Are foreign investors actually pulling money out of India because of taxes?
2. If the government is willing to discuss lowering long-term capital gains tax on equities, then will it result in bringing foreign investors back?

That’s something we explored in yesterday’s Markets edition. You can read it here.

Finshots Weekly Quiz v2.0 🧠

Hey folks! As you probably already know, the Finshots Weekly Quiz has a new avatar. If you missed out, don’t worry. Click here to check out the rules and start participating in the quiz today to stand a chance of making it to this month’s leaderboard, and maybe even winning some merch!

But for now, it’s time to announce the top scorers of our previous weekly quiz. There were a whole bunch of you who participated, and many of you ended up with the same scores. So we’re calling you Bulls, Bears, Unicorns, Blue Chips, and Rising Stars. Here’s how the leaderboard looks right now:

As you can see, we have eight top scorers fighting for the merch. But unfortunately, there’s just one merch box to be won every month.

So to break the tie, we’ll be sending a tie-breaker question to all the “Bulls” via email. Keep an eye on your inbox! The one who gets it right the fastest wins the exclusive Finshots merch for October 2026, and we’ll reveal the winner’s name next week.

And to the rest of you whose names made it to the leaderboard, congratulations! You may not have won the merch this time, but you showed up consistently and earned a spot on Finshots’ weekly leaderboard. That’s pretty cool.

So don’t lose hope. Hit the reset button this month and keep answering all the weekly quizzes. Who knows? You might just be the winner this time around.

Click on this link to take this week’s quiz, which is open till 12 noon, Friday, 6th of November, 2026. The more answers you get right, the better your chances of appearing on the Finshots Weekly Quiz leaderboard. We’ll publish it every Saturday in the Weekly Wrapup. And the winner will be announced in the first week of December.

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