Elon Musk's Plan to Make You Invest in SpaceX by Ryan Cooper

[justaprogressive]

SpaceX is planning a monster initial public offering (IPO). Elon Musk is reportedly seeking to raise some $75 billion, at a valuation of $1.75 trillion, next month. It will be both his birthday and a moment when Venus and Jupiter will be in alignment. It would be the biggest IPO in history by far, utterly dwarfing Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion figure back in 2019.

Musk might sell those shares, too. One reason why, despite the ludicrous valuation, is that stock indices are changing their rules to allow SpaceX to join almost right away and with fewer conditions, thus forcing investors who follow a passive strategy, like index funds and many pension funds, to buy the company’s shares.

The NASDAQ stock exchange used to require a company to have at least 10 percent of its stock publicly traded, and see it traded for at least three months, before being able to join. Those rules are now gone; SpaceX will be eligible after just 15 trading days and with less than 5 percent of its stock available to the public. The S&P 500 reform now under discussion is removing the requirement that companies be profitable (as SpaceX is not, as will be seen below)—but only for the largest 100 companies.

“Historically, the function of IPOs has been to allow insiders to cash out,” said economist J.W. Mason, co-author of the recent book Against Money (for which, full disclosure, I provided a blurb). Thanks to these rule changes, a large fraction of the bag holders will be passive investors—which is to say, basically everyone saving for retirement. “It will be impossible to not own them … This will be really helpful for demand,” one adviser to the deal told the Financial Times.

https://prospect.org/2026/05/20/elon-musk-spacex-stock-ipo/]

[Celerity]

1. kick

[newdeal2]

2. They also want the AI companies to IPO

Someone has to get rich off this hype.

[Melon]

3. I'm sorry...but I'm buying. You can also access through a mutual fund

AI is here globally. Missing the run up on an investor basis on AI or technology stocks that grow at 1000’s%. I think Tesla will take a big hit as space x becomes the hit stock. Could be overvalued at the ipo, but time tends to correct.

[fujiyamasan]

4. I've noted this several times in multiple threads

They each kept sinking. Thanks for bringing this up again. I think the impact this has on the indexes shouldn’t be ignored. It affects most people’s retirements if they’re in any way invested in the market.

Whether you want to own SpaceX stock is up to you and your own personal risk. But you should know what’s in your portfolio. If you own the index you’ll be owning SpaceX.

That’s also why I get so annoyed by holier than thou, “if you don’t boycott XYZ product or company then you’re a bad person”.

Whether you like it or not, we’re all complicit. Being ignorant isn’t an excuse. I also am annoyed by so called experts urging others to sell their “AI stocks”.

Here’s the only advice I’d give. Don’t take any investment advice from randos on the internet, especially this site. Do your own research and decide according to your own risk. Work with a manager if you must, but don’t take investment advice from folks on this site.