Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. Elon Musk is combining SpaceX and xAI in a deal that values the enlarged entity at $1.25 trillion, as the world's richest man looks to fuel his increasingly costly ambitions in artificial intelligence and space exploration. The acquisition of xAI was announced in a statement on SpaceX's website signed by Musk and confirming a Bloomberg News report earlier Monday. The deal gives SpaceX a valuation of $1 trillion, and xAI a value of $250 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The combined company's valuation was announced to employees in a memo on Monday, some of the people said earlier. Asian stocks climbed after their steepest two-day drop since April as markets found footing following sharp swings in gold and silver that sent ripples across assets. The precious metals rose in early trading. For more on what is moving the markets, we spoke to Paul Dobson, Bloomberg's Executive Editor for Asia Markets. President Donald Trump said he would roll back punitive tariffs on India in return for an agreement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would stop buying Russian oil, easing months of tension between the two countries. Following a phone call with Modi, Trump said on social media that he would cut a US levy on Indian goods to 18% from 25%. The US President is also removing an extra punitive 25% duty applied in response to India's purchases of crude from Russia, according to officials familiar with the matter. We got reaction from Basant Sanghera, Managing Principal at the Asia Group. He spoke to Bloomberg's Paul Allen and Shery Ahn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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