Elon Musk’s company SpaceX made its debut on Wall Street this week with both institutional and retail investors expected to grab the 555.6 million shares on sale for $135 each. This move could propel Musk to become the world’s first trillionaire.
Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX made its debut on Wall Street this week with both retail and institutional investors expected to snatch up the 555.6 million shares going for sale at $135 each. This move could make Musk, who’s already considered to be the richest man in the world, the first trillionaire.
SpaceX is also predicted to become the biggest IPO ever with proceeds of about $75 billion, according to reports from AP. Musk and SpaceX are commonly known for their ambitious goals in business and life. The rocket company is hoping to be the first company to send humans to Mars.
In that same vein, Musk’s future payouts are dependent on SpaceX eventually establishing a colony of at least 1 million people on Mars.
In a recent video conference hosted on Musk’s social media platform X, formally Twitter, the tech billionaire told JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon that people have suggested to him for the past decade to take SpaceX public.
He went on to explain that he made the decision to take SpaceX public now because he’s planning to put 100,000 next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit.
“Deploying AI data centers in space is a massive new growth base and you need capital for that.”
By going public, SpaceX has access to the capital it needs, but could also make it open to more scrutiny from current shareholders and more regulatory oversight, AP reported.
For example this could include filing quarterly financial reports which many critics say incentivizes short-term thinking as opposed to longer-term planning. It also creates “unnecessary costs for a company.”
In general, security regulators are currently surveying public opinion on a proposal to require public companies to file financial reports only twice a year.
Musk will hold the majority of a special class of shares. This means he has control over decisions relating to company strategy, finances, and personnel. The ownership of most of these Class B shares also means the only person who can remove Musk from his CEO position is himself.
SpaceX has always credited Musk for being the “driving force” that’s led to their growth, innovation, and success. If he was no longer with the company, SpaceX would experience a major disruption to their “ability to execute its strategy as well as hurt its reputation and relationships with customers, partners, and other stakeholders.”
It’s also been reported that some major investors are not happy. Particularly those from pension funds for firefighters, teachers, and other workers in both California and New York. The group sent a letter to SpaceX last month laying out provisions in its IPO such as “super voting shares, mandatory arbitration of shareholder claims instead of the possibility of lawsuits, and how much power Musk will hold over the company.”
They also understand the reality of Musk’s power over SpaceX. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote on Wednesday that despite everything, there would be no SpaceX without Musk.
“At the end of the day Musk is SpaceX and SpaceX is Musk.”
One of the keys to SpaceX and Musk’s ambitions being fulfilled is bringing their gigantic Starship rocket to life. The rocket is currently in its testing phase.
There are major stakes with the rocket as well, as much of the commercial space business hinges on SpaceX developing Starship’s capability to be reusable and strong enough for a quick turnaround between flights. Now, SpaceX warns that putting data centers and satellites in space will take longer and cost more money.
Analysts online have stated that by pioneering reusable rockets, SpaceX is establishing themselves as one of the top space companies surpassing other competitors like Blue Origin, which is led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Additionally, as of right now business-oriented artificial intelligence products from SpaceX are showing high potential. The company is predicting that their AI products could be worth $22.7 trillion and dominate the industry over rivals like Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
If the SpaceX IPO is fully successful, it could join the Nasdaq 100, a largely followed index that tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies in the composite. Nasdaq also recently changed their rules to allow certain companies to enter the Nasdaq 100 after 15 trading days.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
