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Elon Musk’s rocketship-AI company SpaceX is expected to go public on June 12, and when it does, the richest man in the world hopes investors will help him raise $75 billion, valuing the business at somewhere between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion. If those numbers sound insane to you, consider this: With the debut of SpaceX on the NASDAQ, Musk — currently worth an estimated $811 billion — will very likely become the first trillionaire in history. (He also essentially can’t be fired.) Some investors think this sounds like a great idea. Others are more skeptical. At least one person has uttered the words “The valuation makes no sense” while simultaneously expressing confidence in Musk’s ability to make people believe.
If you’re confused about exactly what SpaceX does, that’s probably because the company’s primary purpose has changed several times. Originally, it was all about getting people to Mars. “The most powerful thing we could do is establish a second, self-sustaining civilization outside of Earth,” Musk said in 2003. “And the only place that’s really feasible is Mars.” Now, SpaceX is planning to build a “self-growing city on the moon,” and thanks to a February merger between SpaceX and Musk’s artificial-intelligence start-up xAI, the company is also a satellite internet business for consumers, through Starlink; a defense-satellite business, through Starshield; an AI company, through xAI — home to Grok, the chatbot that loves Hitler and removing people’s clothes without their consent — and a social-media platform by way of X, the digital town hall that Musk acquired in 2022 and renamed his favorite letter.
Commenting on the shifting priorities, Musk explained in February that he’s “worried that a natural or man-made catastrophe stops the resupply ships coming from Earth, causing the colony to die out.” He added: “We can make the moon city self-growing in less than ten years, but Mars will take 20-plus years due to the 26-month iteration cycle. That is what matters most. There is also an AI bonus element, but the prime directive must be ensuring the long-term survival of consciousness.” Or as Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki, an investment firm that owns shares of SpaceX, put it to the New York Times: “It’s a hallucinogenic business plan,” and, in his estimation, Musk “has lost his mind” in his attempt to get people hyped about the IPO.
Musk owns roughly 43 percent of SpaceX, putting his current net worth at approximately $800 billion. (He also, of course, owns a chunk of Tesla, which last year awarded him a pay package worth an equally mind-boggling amount of money.) The IPO would most certainly push him into four-comma territory, or approximately $70 billion for each of his children. Maybe even the xAI employees waiting on checks for $420 apiece could get paid.
While some people are looking at the $1.75 trillion valuation and mouthing What the fuck? to themselves, others are ready to sign on like yesterday. “I am not saying our investment process is to just give him money for anything he wants,” one venture capitalist told the Financial Times. “But to be honest that wouldn’t have been a bad strategy: Never bet against Elon.”
“From a strict corporate-finance perspective, the valuation makes no sense,” an adviser on the deal told the FT. “But Elon is great at getting people to dream. Large-asset managers are very keen on this IPO. There is a lot of demand and a lot of Elon fans.”
If you think Elon Musk is a genius who should never be questioned, you’ll love what SpaceX has cooked up with regard to its public-company-governance structure. As Reuters reported last month, SpaceX’s confidential S-1 filing shows that SpaceX will have two classes of stock: Class A for rank-and-file investors and Class B for upper-echelon inventors, the latter of which will have ten times the voting power. Who will control the Class B shares? If you guessed that his name starts with a E and ends with a lon Musk, you guessed right. Per Reuters, the filing states that Musk, who will be chief executive officer, chief technology officer, and chairman of the board, “can only be removed from our board or these positions by the vote of Class B holders.” In other words, he can’t be removed unless he wants to be.
On X, Musk explained that such a setup is necessary so he can remain laser-focused on ensuring the survival of the universe. “I need to make sure SpaceX stays focused on making life multiplanetary and extending consciousness to the stars, not pandering to someone’s bullshit quarterly earnings bonus!” he wrote, adding that people should not “expect entirely smooth sailing along the way.”
Now, some experts aren’t sold on this setup. Speaking to the Telegraph, GLJ Research founder Gordon Johnson declared that “the governance architecture [of the IPO] is the most one-sided of any company that will list at this scale.” In a letter to Musk, New York State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, New York City comptroller Mark Levine, and California Public Employees’ Retirement System CEO Marcie Frost sounded the alarm over what they dubbed “the most management-favorable governance structure ever,” which they probably did not mean as a compliment. The group added its astonishment that “removal of the Company’s most powerful officer would, as a mathematical matter, require his own vote — essentially making him unfireable without his own consent.”
Oh, it’s on the table. In the confidential filing, SpaceX said it’ll give Musk an extra 200 million Class B voting shares if he puts 1 million people on the planet (and the company hits a $7.5 trillion valuation). Which, to be fair, will be pretty tough, and it’s not clear how many takers the company will have. As Musk himself put it in 2024, “It’s very important to emphasize that Mars, especially in the beginning, will not be luxurious. It will be dangerous, cramped, difficult, hard work.”
SpaceX is scheduled to launch its newly redesigned Starship V3 megarocket into space on Wednesday, and, as Bloomberg helpfully notes, “with its mega-IPO fast approaching, the company really needs the rocket to work as advertised,” meaning not explode. That would potentially put off would-be shareholders, but then again, who knows!
