Bollcoin, October 23 — US financial media outlet Semafor reports that Musk proposed a merger between Tesla (TSLA.O) and SpaceX (SPCX.O) this week, and a former Justice Department official said the risk of antitrust issues is real. The official noted that antitrust regulators view such "vertical" mergers as pro-competitive because they help improve supply chain efficiency; but if Tesla-SpaceX is deemed a possible "vertical exclusivity" merger, regulators may seek to block it. The official explained that an "exclusivity" situation is one in which a company uses its position to restrict competitors at other levels of its supply chain. In this case, if in the future only Tesla vehicles can use SpaceX's Starlink and other technologies, other autonomous driving or electric vehicle manufacturers could be harmed as a result.