SpaceX went public. SpaceX, the company Elon Musk built specifically so he would never have to deal with quarterly earnings calls or explain himself to shareholders, went public. The company that existed entirely because Musk hated the constraints of public markets decided those constraints looked pretty good actually.
The summary says SpaceX achieved its goal of becoming the largest IPO on record. Strange goal for a company that spent two decades telling everyone it would never IPO. Must have been written in invisible ink below the Mars mission statement. Right underneath "make life multiplanetary" was "eventually cave and sell shares to Fidelity customers."
A former Tesla board member now says SpaceX needs to hit 2 of 3 moonshots to justify the valuation. Not all three. Just two. The bar for a $200 billion rocket company is apparently a D+. Pass-fail grading for space exploration. Parents everywhere are taking notes for their kids' report cards.
The board member didn't specify which two moonshots. Probably because SpaceX already completed the IPO moonshot, which was the only one Wall Street cared about. Starship can explode on the pad seventeen more times. Doesn't matter. The shares are already trading.
Retail traders who bought SpaceX at IPO prices are now holding bags full of rocket fuel and broken promises. They thought they were investing in Mars. Turns out they were investing in a company that needed to explain to a former Tesla board member why achieving one moonshot out of three might be problematic for the stock price.
SpaceX wanted to make humanity multiplanetary. Instead it made Robinhood users multi-poor.
Photo by nader saremi on Unsplash
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