[HN Gopher] SpaceX files to go public
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       SpaceX files to go public
        
       Author : nutjob2
       Score  : 124 points
       Date   : 2026-04-01 17:49 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | chasd00 wrote:
       | The thing i'm not looking forward to is SpaceX will now be
       | beholden to Wall Street. With Startship testing being so public,
       | there's a whole cottage industry of youtubers watching their
       | every move, there's going to be lots of ups and downs on the
       | stock price.
        
         | Diederich wrote:
         | > SpaceX will now be beholden to Wall Street
         | 
         | I get and appreciate that sentiment. Musk currently has a
         | controlling interest in SpaceX. Do you expect that to change
         | after the IPO? Thanks!
        
           | ACCount37 wrote:
           | I expect that the amount of "good influence" institutional
           | shareholders can exert on SpaceX leadership and operations is
           | about zero, and the amount of "bad influence" is more than
           | that. Thus, the only way this can affect SpaceX's leadership
           | is negative.
           | 
           | A big part of how SpaceX did what they did is that they
           | weren't beholden to institutional pressures. They could
           | afford to take major risks. This may change when a pool of
           | investors who don't care about space and just want the line
           | to go up end up being stakeholders.
        
           | chasd00 wrote:
           | I get the feeling investors are going to watch Starship
           | explode and explode while it's being developed without
           | understanding the trial/error, hardware rich, approach SpaceX
           | takes and not like it. That's going to hurt the stock price
           | and therefore hurt the company. Before, when Starship
           | exploded people just pointed and laughed at Musk but SpaceX
           | kept going. For better or for worse it doesn't really bother
           | him, don't forget he got literally laughed out of the room
           | when he proposed a re-usable orbital booster. Now those
           | people actually matter because they'll sell/short and kill
           | the stock price and therefore materially hurt the company. I
           | replied to a sibling about Tesla, remember the shorts nearly
           | killed Tesla before it even had a chance. The technology was
           | there and the concept proven but the shorters almost killed
           | the whole thing. IMO Tesla went public way too early and it
           | almost cost them everything. idk what SpaceX has to gain by
           | going public, are they hurting for cash? Based on the pace of
           | development in Boca Chica it doesn't appear so.
           | 
           | /not a finance or investment expert just my observations and
           | feelings
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _get the feeling investors are going to watch Starship
             | explode and explode while it 's being developed without
             | understanding the trial/error, hardware rich, approach
             | SpaceX takes_
             | 
             | Investors have been doing this since SpaceX first raised
             | outside funding. American capital markets are not that risk
             | averse.
        
             | karmakurtisaani wrote:
             | > idk what SpaceX has to gain by going public
             | 
             | They will save Elons shitty AI investment by making the
             | public bag holders.
        
         | moogly wrote:
         | What makes you think this will be different from Tesla?
        
           | chasd00 wrote:
           | None and that's the problem, the shorts almost killed Tesla
           | for no other reason than being short. I think watching
           | Starship after Starship blow up while being tested when
           | investors don't really understand what they're looking at is
           | going to be bad for the stock price. In a public traded
           | company so goes the stock price so goes the business.
        
           | nxm wrote:
           | Are you shorting Tesla since you're so confident in its
           | downfall?
        
             | pstuart wrote:
             | blah blah _irrational_ blah blah _solvent_
             | 
             | It's still obscenely overpriced.
        
       | jordanb wrote:
       | You don't have to believe. If you have a 401k you will be an
       | investor 15 days after launch.
       | 
       | The IPO will go great, because the company will float a fairly
       | small issuance. The big shareholders will not immediately sell.
       | They will hold on and maybe even buy to support the price.
       | 
       | Then, after 15 days, it will enter the indexes and everyone's
       | 401k will start auto-buying this stock.
       | 
       | You might say this is an obvious flaw in how the indexes work if
       | they start immediately accept a brand new IPOed stock with
       | limited float. You'd be right, which is why they won't list for a
       | year.
       | 
       | At least they wouldn't until Elon got them to change their rules:
       | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-30/nasdaq-cl...
        
         | throwaway290 wrote:
         | > If you have a 401k you will be an investor 15 days after
         | launch
         | 
         | You will be an investor in spacex and xai which it bought.
         | 
         | Fun fact, Xai net loss 6 billion dollars per year and SpaceX
         | net profit 8 billion on a good year
         | (https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-xai-posts-net-
         | quart... https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/spacex-
         | registers-tak...)
         | 
         | If you remember xai, it's that company currently being sued for
         | the undressing kids feature (https://www.theverge.com/ai-
         | artificial-intelligence/895639/x...
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_sexual_deepfake_scandal) in
         | its flagship product. By the way the feature is still enabled
         | apparently
         | 
         | Is there something about why spacex wants to go public ? if not
         | then this is definitely about xai... to hide unprofitability
         | and offload it on general public ASAP.
        
           | lokar wrote:
           | The SpaceX profit is EBITDA, not real. And presumably
           | includes massive starlink depreciation and stock based comp.
        
         | saalweachter wrote:
         | Only NASDAQ so far; S&P 500 is apparently "reviewing its rules"
         | but hasn't changed them yet.
         | 
         | So you've got a full year to wait on that index fund, assuming
         | they don't cave.
        
           | lokar wrote:
           | Also, would individual funds that track the S&P have left
           | themselves some wiggle room to delay this if they wanted?
        
             | morepork wrote:
             | I am not an expert, but my understanding is most funds
             | don't change allocations immediately, but it would be part
             | of normal rebalancing, e.g. VOO and other indexes that
             | track the S&P500 do it quarterly
        
               | lokar wrote:
               | And even with that, they give themselves some room for
               | tracking error, I think.
        
         | Betelbuddy wrote:
         | Uter and complete corruption:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47389233                 -
         | "Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un
         | crime oublie, parce qu'il a ete proprement fait."
         | Honore de Balzac
        
         | bryanlarsen wrote:
         | The flaw is the limited float. Indexes will be forced to buy a
         | huge number of shares which don't exist, driving up the price.
         | 
         | For general investors if this is going to eventually happen,
         | the earlier the indexes buy in the better. Otherwise more
         | sophisticated investors will buy ahead of the indexes and grab
         | the profit.
        
           | lokar wrote:
           | if they weighted (fully) by float (perhaps the average float
           | from the trailing 90 days to the re-balance) it would not be
           | as easy to game. The Nasdaq is accounting for float, but not
           | completely.
        
             | dmoy wrote:
             | Aren't basically all the huge serious index funds float
             | weighted?
        
               | lokar wrote:
               | Matt Levine wrote (uh, yesterday?) that the Nasdaq 100
               | was adding it (not a full linear weighting....) right now
               | to accommodate this scam.
        
               | dbt00 wrote:
               | Yeah, the OEX is a more serious index for more serious
               | people.
        
               | dmoy wrote:
               | Ok fair, I forgot that QQQ is as big as it is.
               | 
               | Edit: wait, but QQQ is float adjusted?
               | 
               | What are the biggest not-float-adjusted index funds?
        
               | lokar wrote:
               | I don't know about the funds, but it's really about the
               | index. Both for the index funds that use the index, and
               | the active mutual funds and index funds benchmark to that
               | index.
        
               | dmoy wrote:
               | Why is it really about the index though, if the index
               | fund doesn't track that public index?
               | 
               | If the index fund is tracking some proxy that is float
               | weighted, isn't that what matters? At least when it comes
               | to people's money.
        
               | nighthawk454 wrote:
               | They are, but SpaceX is trying to get rules changed. They
               | want the index to buy at a multiple of the float, so they
               | release say 5% but get bought as if they had released 15%
               | float. They also normally wouldn't be eligible for index
               | inclusion for ~1 year, after showing multiple quarters of
               | good stewardship, etc. They're trying to bypass all that
        
         | barumrho wrote:
         | Do the ETF managers have no discretion in determining when to
         | buy? I was under the impression that they usually handle these
         | changes to indices gradually even under normal circumstances.
        
           | nh23423fefe wrote:
           | of course they do. read any prospectus for a FUND and funds
           | track INDEXES using rules. inclusion in some index doesn't
           | hamstring anyone.
           | 
           | blind purchases are not going to happen. people assume
           | passive indexing is brainless, but it isnt.
        
         | fermentation wrote:
         | This is absolutely vile. The xAi merger made no sense and this
         | is forcing working class people into purchasing risky assets
         | from a known scammer.
        
           | g-technology wrote:
           | It does when you look at it with a few less zeros... it's
           | like a broke person floating checks for payday loans.
        
         | mosura wrote:
         | Ever since SNAP the whole IPO show has been a transparent scam
         | to game the index funds.
         | 
         | The market simply doesn't have enough people actively investing
         | because it rewards mass stupidity over generating meaningful
         | returns.
        
           | lotsofpulp wrote:
           | Based on the list of businesses at the top, the stock market
           | seems like it rewards profit margin and profits, by
           | businesses that sell meaningful products and services.
           | 
           | https://companiesmarketcap.com
           | 
           | Can you provide an example of any of the businesses on that
           | are on that list due to "mass stupidity"? They all seem to
           | operate factories, employ many highly qualified people, and
           | make a material difference in many or even most people's
           | lives around the world.
           | 
           | Meanwhile, SNAP has returned -14.98% per year to its
           | shareholders since it IPO'd (Jun 3 2017), and at an $8.27B
           | market cap, it makes up a negligible portion of any broad
           | market index fund, so not sure how SNAP's shareholders have
           | been rewarded by mass stupidity, especially given that the
           | founders still own half of the business. They would have been
           | far better off liquidating their shares and investing in
           | SP500.
           | 
           | https://dqydj.com/stock-return-calculator/?ticker=SNAP
        
             | riffraff wrote:
             | I mean, that list has Tesla, which is overvalued by any
             | plausible valuation approach.
        
         | TheAlchemist wrote:
         | I really wish more people were aware of this. It's a major
         | scandal and definitely not being talked enough about.
         | 
         | Nevermind SpaceX, which at least have some importance for US
         | defense industry, but xAI ? We will be investing in Elon's
         | private venture, at the price that he himself set and which is
         | at least 2 orders of magnitude too high...
        
           | lacy_tinpot wrote:
           | In order to be incredulous at xAI, you'd have to be
           | incredulous of the AI business in general, which is fair.
           | 
           | But then you'd also be basically betting against the entire
           | tech sector, and really the entire US economy and against the
           | value add of AI. That kind of bet is much more difficult to
           | swallow.
        
             | riffraff wrote:
             | That's not true at all.
             | 
             | I am confident some companies will make bank with AI. I am
             | also confident xAI is not one of those.
             | 
             | It's as if you said "if you don't think Lycos is a good
             | business you don't think search engines can work in
             | general".
        
               | sublinear wrote:
               | I kinda disagree because while most search engines failed
               | and Google succeeded, they did not succeed by simply
               | being a better search engine.
               | 
               | This is only further demonstrated by their excellent
               | leverage of Gemini. Google continues to succeed at being
               | Google.
        
             | ultrarunner wrote:
             | > against the value add of AI
             | 
             | Hasn't the surprising _lack_ of value add been discussed
             | with increasing frequency?
        
             | Spooky23 wrote:
             | Who is using Grok seriously?
        
           | sroussey wrote:
           | Just call it what it is: SpaceTwitter
        
           | Spooky23 wrote:
           | Well, we elected a bunch of criminals, and Elon fired
           | everyone who regulates this. The SEC was gutted like a fish,
           | and contract terminations resulted in a large percentage of
           | FINRA staff being laid off.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _It 's a major scandal and definitely not being talked
           | enough about_
           | 
           | It's being extensively talked about and debated. It hasn't
           | entered the mainstream discourse because it's too technical.
        
         | manquer wrote:
         | >float a fairly small issuance
         | 
         | SpaceX are widely reported to be planning to raise $75Billion
         | in new capital. It may seem small a % for the valuation target.
         | However that is about 3 times previous highest raise of $29B
         | when Saudi Aramco went public few years back. The market simply
         | may not be that deep[1]
         | 
         | There is a good chance this one becomes the Wework of this
         | decade. The valuation, amount being raised, cooling interests
         | in AI, and middle eastern capital changing priorities, interest
         | rate outlook for the rest of the decade. These are all strong
         | head winds to overcome even when not raising the largest ever
         | amount in an IPO.
         | 
         | That is not say that it is destined to fail, Elon is excellent
         | salesman of vision when fundamentals are weak, There is no
         | better proof than Tesla P/E .
         | 
         | It is by no means clear this would be successful or not. The
         | valuation, funds being raised, future growth potential are all
         | not based on just SpaceX core businesses which would have been
         | an easy sell.
         | 
         | ---
         | 
         | [1] i.e. it could be still under-subscribed even if everyone
         | buys into the vision, growth projections, is comfortable with
         | valuation gets fully onboard including retail.
         | 
         | Even in this best case scenario SpaceX would have to sell at
         | the lower end of the target range or go even lower and still
         | end up being short matter what, because there could simply be
         | not enough money in the market.
        
         | stickfigure wrote:
         | Serious question: Is there some ETF that is "Index of S&P500
         | minus anything that smells like Musk"?
        
           | delecti wrote:
           | Yes, kinda. Goldman Sachs launched that under the symbol
           | SPXXAI last month. I'm not totally sure how to actually
           | invest in it yet though.
           | 
           | https://www.axios.com/2026/02/20/ai-goldman-sachs-stocks-
           | ind...
        
           | CactusBlue wrote:
           | If you have a big enough portfolio, direct indexing (using
           | something like Frec or Wealthfront) could be an interesting
           | option, and weighting the companies that you don't want at 0.
        
         | cosmicgadget wrote:
         | The indexes buy based on market cap or float?
        
           | tonfa wrote:
           | Most serious index do float, nasdaq has somewhat different
           | rules (but it's a weird index...)
        
         | abeppu wrote:
         | ok so it seems pretty bad that they changed the index rules
         | both to allow spacex in early and the wonky weighting stuff.
         | But if one already has index-based things that are likely to be
         | captive on the wrong side of this, and one wanted to benefit or
         | at least balance out, to confirm my limited understanding the
         | goal would be:
         | 
         | - buy shortly after the IPO, ideally less than 15 days
         | 
         | - and sell less than 6 months later when lockups would end and
         | insiders are set to cash out?
        
         | actionfromafar wrote:
         | So that's what he's been busy with. I was hoping it was
         | Ketamine.
        
         | nick__m wrote:
         | Thank you for posting that. I also read that on some less
         | authoritative source I don't remember. It's truly scandalous. I
         | wish ETFs will revolt and apply the old rule for inclusion, but
         | I have no illusion it will happen.
        
         | quickthrowman wrote:
         | SpaceX will not be part of the S&P 500 when it lists, so you
         | can avoid owning SpaceX for now by sticking with non-NASDAQ
         | funds. IIRC it would take about a year for SpaceX to qualify
         | for the S&P 500, four consecutive profitable quarters is needed
         | I believe.
         | 
         | If you own a NASDAQ fund or total US stock market fund, you
         | will have exposure to SpaceX.
        
         | browningstreet wrote:
         | They're notably going for a large issuance.
        
         | derwiki wrote:
         | My 401k has BrokerageLink set up and invests in VT/VTI. It
         | takes less than 15 days so if your company offers
         | BrokerageLink, you can avoid investing in SpaceX.
        
       | slowmovintarget wrote:
       | Rabble rabble... debt... rabble rabble... xAI burning revenue...
       | 
       | > In the United States, SpaceX accounts for five of every six
       | launches into space, according to Georgetown University's Center
       | for Security and Emerging Technology.
       | 
       | That's why.
        
         | indoordin0saur wrote:
         | And likely soon to be the world's biggest ISP, (they probably
         | already are by some metrics)
        
           | ctoa wrote:
           | They are nowhere near the world's biggest ISP by any metrics,
           | what are you talking about?
        
             | lokar wrote:
             | Biggest by capital depreciation, no?
        
             | jjordan wrote:
             | Well in terms of landmass covered it's not even a contest.
        
       | wg0 wrote:
       | Is it a scandal? https://youtu.be/8rS3fTbC7TE
        
         | catlikesshrimp wrote:
         | The speaker seems to be generated by AI. Edit: I not pro musk,
         | but the run of the mill pictures aren't needed.
        
           | Imustaskforhelp wrote:
           | > The speaker seems to be generated by AI
           | 
           | This is Patrick Boyle, he's not AI generated? Why did you
           | feel like the speaker is AI generated?
        
             | lokar wrote:
             | And Boyle, IMO, is a great presenter, in part because he is
             | so deadpan
        
             | amoss wrote:
             | I've watched Patrick's videos for enough years that I know
             | he is not, but I still wonder from time to time. His voice
             | is incredibly flat and uniform, he always uses fake
             | backgrounds and there is extremely high use of jump cuts in
             | his edits.
        
               | richbell wrote:
               | I suspect that he at least uses AI for scripts. He tends
               | to repeat the same thing worded slightly differently a
               | few times.
        
               | literalAardvark wrote:
               | The jump cuts have been there since almost the beginning.
               | 
               | The community noticed he rarely blinks and he ran with
               | the gag and edited all of them out.
        
       | superjan wrote:
       | Patrick Boyle (fund manager, professor, youtuber) recently
       | discussed this IPO on his channel. Informative and entertaining.
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/8rS3fTbC7TE?is=TGpEdM2Y7sknP-cW
        
         | lokar wrote:
         | And despite popular opinion, he is not an AI :)
        
       | jacquesm wrote:
       | Now or never. If the stock market goes bust because of the war
       | then most IPO windows will close or will result in a much lower
       | subscription rate. You can expect a flurry of these in the next
       | few weeks.
        
       | churchill wrote:
       | With $1.75t valuation & ~$16b in revenues, that's just over 100*
       | revenues. SpaceX recently announced $8b in EBITDA, but I don't
       | think it's a healthy metric for such a hardware-heavy business.
       | Or, like Charlie Munger calls it, BS earnings.
       | 
       | Even if you give SpaceX the benefit of the doubt and assume
       | they'll eventually settle at the profit rates Apple, Google, etc.
       | have (~25%, check it), it'll be $4b in annual profits holding up
       | $1.8t in market cap or roughly 450 PE ratio.
       | 
       | And that's if we give them the same great odds for profitability
       | as America's most successful and profitable firms.
       | 
       | In summary, in the short-term the stock might very likely shoot
       | up to $3t, but in the long-term, it doesn't look very healthy.
        
       | indoordin0saur wrote:
       | SpaceX has reduced the cost of getting a ton of mass into orbit
       | by a factor of 10 and with their new system (Starship) it's
       | poised further reduce that to 100x. They launch, land and re-use
       | their rockets so often now that what was considered impossible 15
       | years ago is now routine. They currently put more things into
       | space than the rest of the world combined and by a huge margin.
       | They also have the most advanced internet infrastructure in the
       | world and are poised to replace legacy ISPs and even mobile
       | carriers in the coming decade. Oh, and they're doing all this
       | while making a profit ($16B last year) despite their massive R&D
       | spending and even with the money sink that is xAI their profits
       | will be higher this year. It's hard to say that this isn't one of
       | the most innovative and fast moving companies in the world.
       | $1.75T maybe seems excessive, but less so than a lot of other
       | companies out there.
        
         | luke5441 wrote:
         | I don't see how replacing mobile carriers with space based
         | infrastructure is physically possible.
        
           | tristanj wrote:
           | It's not meant to replace terrestrial networks, it's a space-
           | based alternative that serves areas carriers have no
           | financial incentive to cover. Terrestrial cellular towers
           | cost between $150k to $500k per tower, and are not
           | economically feasible in less populated areas. There are also
           | many dead-zones in mountainous regions, since cell signals
           | are blocked by mountains.
           | 
           | Starlink Mobile supplements this, it's simply cheaper for
           | mobile providers to partner with them than do their own
           | buildout. Currently only 5% of the earth's surface is covered
           | by cellular signals. Starlink will push that up to 85+%, and
           | is backward compatible with existing cellphones.
        
           | x0x0 wrote:
           | It doesn't not seem like anything approaching a lucrative
           | business.
           | 
           | TAM: How big is the market for high speed internet that can
           | pay $1200+/year and isn't already well-served by
           | comcast/at&t/etc? And of course, this is all with finite
           | spectrum too. So you can't serve the major cities.
           | 
           | No doubt there exist buyers. But rural Montana doesn't have
           | that many households. Add that 5 year replacement cycle and
           | Musk's Trump alignment that has Europe building their own for
           | security reasons.
        
         | RealityVoid wrote:
         | It has technical merit and it is impressive. But I doubt it's
         | worth that much. I guess Musk has the talent of pushing and
         | getting what he wants, so I guess we'll see how it plays out.
         | I'm just afraid for the future is SpaceX in these crazy crazy
         | times.
        
         | projektfu wrote:
         | $16B is the top line gross revenue number.
         | 
         | You don't count R&D as an expense per GAAP, so...
         | 
         | They have claimed $8B in EBITDA, also leaving out the
         | amortization of R&D costs.
         | 
         | Those aren't audited numbers, as far as I know.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _Those aren 't audited numbers, as far as I know_
           | 
           | SpaceX has been audited for over a decade.
        
           | pnw wrote:
           | Audited financials would be released with the S-1. But it's
           | very unlikely that they are not audited given the amount of
           | money they have raised.
        
       | b3ing wrote:
       | How will they make money? From governments? With Elon's beliefs,
       | few will be able to afford the vacation trips to space, except a
       | few and they can already do this if they wanted, but haven't in
       | droves.
       | 
       | If anything this just proves that the Overview Effect (traveling
       | to space changes you) is just BS, Bezos and the others never
       | changed.
        
       | convexly wrote:
       | I'm genuinely waiting to see at what the valuation lands at. The
       | gap between what SpaceX charges per launch and what everyone else
       | charges is so wide that the moat basically is the rocket. Hard to
       | compare against anything even now.
        
         | bmau5 wrote:
         | Valuations are always more of an art than a science but in what
         | world is SpaceX worth more than Meta today? Maybe the $1.75T is
         | to find that world.
        
           | convexly wrote:
           | The valuation only makes sense if you price in Starlink
           | becoming a top 3 telecom and Starship opening up entirely new
           | markets. Possible, sure, but the launch business alone
           | doesn't get you anywhere near 1.75T. They're betting the
           | multiple on revenue lines that don't fully exist yet.
        
           | bpodgursky wrote:
           | I mean... in what world is it worth less?
           | 
           | Meta has increasingly ephemeral digital mindshare and no AI
           | play. SpaceX has a near monopoly on access to the rest of the
           | galaxy.
        
             | convexly wrote:
             | The question for me is just timeline. The "rest of the
             | galaxy" revenue is decades out, while Starlink revenue is
             | now. Most of the 1.75T has to be priced on Starlink working
             | at telecom scale. If not, 1.75T seems like a steal for the
             | first true "Universal" investment...
        
       | dang wrote:
       | [stub for offtopicness]
       | 
       | [All: please don't post unsubstantive comments to HN. You don't
       | have to like $Company or $Person, but when the banned accounts
       | are posting more thoughtfully than the rest, that's...a bad
       | sign.]
        
         | mtharrison wrote:
         | What's in the SpaceX Files and why aren't they already public?
        
           | throwaway85825 wrote:
           | The big numbers are the cost to train a frontier LLM and the
           | GPU cost per hour.
        
           | charcircuit wrote:
           | Sensitive financial information. It is normal for companies
           | to file confidentiality to avoid leaking information early.
        
             | wavemode wrote:
             | Parent commenter is making a joke about the fact that, in
             | the title "SpaceX Files to Go Public", the word "Files"
             | could be read as either a noun or a verb.
        
           | riffraff wrote:
           | the truth social is out there
        
           | MisterTea wrote:
           | Details of alien encounters and abductions, paranormal and
           | psychic phenomena, as well as crypto-zoology and curious
           | human abilities.
           | 
           |  _reads headline again_
           | 
           | Oh. Probably all the money burnt in AI training and data
           | centers.
        
           | SunshineTheCat wrote:
           | That is what I'm talking about, finally someone is asking the
           | real questions.
        
           | tastyface wrote:
           | I don't know what's in the Spacex files, but I do know that
           | Musk begged and pleaded with Epstein to come party on pedo
           | island.
           | 
           | Maybe something to consider before investing in any of his
           | companies.
        
           | 1970-01-01 wrote:
           | Outstanding comment.
           | 
           | 4 different levels to unpack: Literal IPO question, Epstein
           | cover-up (gov. won't just do it), aliens (X-Files) cover-up,
           | and finally the Elon-Epstein connection (email files thread
           | to host him at SpaceX).
        
           | righthand wrote:
           | Just more pedophiles and their supporters.
        
             | righthand wrote:
             | What? OP wasn't trying to make an Epstein files joke?
        
             | nxm wrote:
             | Clintons?
        
               | righthand wrote:
               | Clintons aren't connected to Space X though so that's a
               | silly answer.
        
         | gigatexal wrote:
         | ugh he's going to be worth > 1T and go on to have even more
         | influence than before. this is so bad for society.
         | 
         | idgaf about the company. sure they proved the space and moved
         | the space forward just like Tesla did with electric cars but
         | why did it have to be Elon?
        
         | throwaway85825 wrote:
         | Trying to dump on the market before the bubble pops.
        
           | outside2344 wrote:
           | Not sure why you are being downvoted. This is exactly what is
           | happening and why OpenAI is trying to IPO to dump their
           | garbage as well.
        
             | skeeter2020 wrote:
             | maybe it's the histrionics? Thse personalities are
             | inevitably inflating their own balloons in order to cash
             | out, but that doesn't mean the reality is these companies
             | are worthless. The downvotes come from comments like
             | "OpenAI is trying to dump their garbage". At best that's a
             | silly thing to say. We can argue "fair market value" but
             | it's not zero.
        
               | throwaway85825 wrote:
               | What is the fair market value of an AI company that loses
               | >$10B/year? Of course they have assets that could be
               | stripped and sold for profit but public creditors come
               | last. It's also going to be no where near their private
               | valuation.
        
             | senectus1 wrote:
             | because its not accurate. they're _milking_ the market. not
             | dumping on the market.
             | 
             | they're only (sic) going for 75 billion. with an evaluation
             | in the trillion mark.
             | 
             | This is just more speculative investment. you'll see this
             | again in another year or so with a bigger evaluation on
             | it... it's how the modern economy now "works".
        
         | CalChris wrote:
         | This is structured so that Musk becomes the first trillionaire.
        
           | Detrytus wrote:
           | Yeah, that's probably the only reason for SpaceX going
           | public.
        
         | Ekaros wrote:
         | On one hand I do take some enjoyment of suckers being fleeced.
         | But on other hand I know who this all will benefit so I really
         | can't do that.
         | 
         | As whole I find that valuation just insane, but seemingly if
         | you only offer tiny enough slice with enough hype it might bump
         | prices to something that really make no sense at all...
        
           | throwaway85825 wrote:
           | The suckers being fleeced are every pension fund in the
           | world. They're demanding the S&P includes them faster to
           | force ETF owners to buy in before the price tanks.
        
             | indoordin0saur wrote:
             | Why are they being fleeced? If people didn't want to buy
             | SpaceX they could buy some other ETF that doesn't include
             | it. If there's enough of a demand I'm sure ETFs will be
             | offered which include all the big indexed stocks _except_
             | SpaceX.
        
               | throwaway85825 wrote:
               | Restructuring every ETF to be S&P but prior rules and no
               | SpaceX would be enormously difficult.
        
               | throwaway290 wrote:
               | Yes Americans will definitely move their 401k over this
               | /s
               | 
               | Its fleecing because it basically takes everybody's money
               | and gives it to support musk's money loser xai. SpaceX
               | net profit 8 billion per year (previous years much less)
               | and Xai was net losing 1.5 billion per quarter.
        
             | michaelt wrote:
             | God forbid we participants in the stock market _evaluate_ a
             | business before investing in it, or do any sort of _work_
             | to get the return we 're promised.
             | 
             | I, for one, much prefer to earn a 9% return without
             | expending any effort or thought at all.
        
               | throwaway85825 wrote:
               | For most people their talent and expertise does not
               | involve investing. That's why pensions and 401ks exist
               | and why S&P/nasdaq have rules to protect the public.
        
               | bryananderson wrote:
               | You may wish it were not so, you may find it inelegant
               | and infuriating and unfair, but it is a fact that retail
               | investors nearly all underperform the market over a long
               | enough time horizon. Maybe you are built different but
               | for most of us it is very rational to take the market
               | return for "free".
        
               | socialcommenter wrote:
               | Do understand, though, that market return will struggle
               | to achieve 9% for the coming decades. A 9% annualised
               | return would put the US stock market at 50% of world GDP
               | in 10 years (edit: 20) and something like 90% of world
               | GDP in 30 years (edit: 50 years). Cost of goods, and your
               | customer's money, both have to come out of global GDP
               | too.
               | 
               | (The current value of around 25% of global GDP doesn't
               | even include the 1.75 trillion SpaceX which alone would
               | be another almost 1%...)
               | 
               | ETF expense ratios are small but still mean retail will
               | underperform anyway. It's an unfortunate situation all
               | around.
        
           | skeeter2020 wrote:
           | Unless you literally have nothing, YOU are one of the
           | millions being fleeced. Pensions & retirement funds, any
           | index fund that comes remotely close to technology, any
           | equity you own in a venture in tech, any industry that via
           | very short linkages is connected. Good luck avoiding this.
        
             | indoordin0saur wrote:
             | You only get "fleeced" if the stock crashes. If it's that
             | terrible of a stock then the price will be low. As far as
             | SpaceX goes, I think there are far riskier companies with
             | little prospect of doing well.
        
               | FireBeyond wrote:
               | How about xAI? Losing $6B a year and with that whole
               | "Grok, generate me an image of this child with no clothes
               | on" horrorshow?
               | 
               | Sorry, "xAI, a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX".
        
               | indoordin0saur wrote:
               | 1.) All the image generation models will do that, xAI is
               | just the one that caught flak for it
               | 
               | 2.) SpaceX made $16B in profit last year, despite its
               | enormous R&D costs and is on track for $20B this year,
               | despite the losses from AI. People still wise to invest
               | in Google despite their AI business still being a huge
               | loss
        
               | FireBeyond wrote:
               | > 1.) All the image generation models will do that, xAI
               | is just the one that caught flak for it
               | 
               | Perhaps. But that's a huge undersell. "just the one that
               | caught flak"? No. The one with nearly zero guardrails.
               | Where users could trivially create underage porn,
               | bestiality, etc., using prompts that you could put into
               | any other AI and just say "does this image generation
               | prompt seem likely to create legally problematic
               | content?"
               | 
               | No, Captain Free Speech said fuck it, let's roll.
        
               | torginus wrote:
               | Not that I approve of that, but when image generation was
               | hot and new, the insane amount of refusals I got from the
               | major ones for apparently no reason, exacerabated by the
               | general slowness, quotas and inherent trial and error
               | workflow has completely soured me on them.
        
               | lokar wrote:
               | They are only selling a small % of the shares in the IPO
               | and subsequent weeks.
               | 
               | With a tiny float the price will almost certainly go up
               | as a limited number of enthusiastic investors buy in. The
               | plan is to then line up the lockup expirations so they
               | sell into the index re-balance, a ton of new non-
               | discretionary demand to match the new supply.
               | 
               | It's manipulation.
        
         | rvz wrote:
         | They are going IPO close to Elon's birthday (26th or 29th June)
         | aren't they? Like they did with Tesla.
         | 
         | But as soon as they IPO, that's a signal to head for the exit
         | before it all collapses again.
        
           | indoordin0saur wrote:
           | TSLA is up 300x from what it IPO'd at
        
             | bobsomers wrote:
             | But it was also flat last year and the financials are
             | atrociously bad. Reality is catching up.
        
         | outside2344 wrote:
         | I hate that I will have to invest in this crap with my
         | retirement index funds
        
         | torginus wrote:
         | Does this mean that before june SpaceX will do something highly
         | noteworthy, to justify the IPO price?
        
           | WarmWash wrote:
           | Elon will announce roborockets that pick you up and fly you
           | to Mars in under 12 hours while your hypersleep in the
           | ExaShip. Production starts definitely next year.
        
         | mrlonglong wrote:
         | If it goes public, does that means Musk won't own any of it?
         | Can we rip it out of his filthy hands?
        
           | nly wrote:
           | Likely only a shameful % of the company will float.
        
             | projektfu wrote:
             | Expect a Facebook-style stock offering with 90% of the
             | voting power in a special share class not available to
             | retail.
        
           | cj wrote:
           | Companies typically make a minority of their stock available
           | on public markets upon IPO.
           | 
           | Not sure what % SpaceX will be offering up.
        
         | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
         | Bollocks valuation. There isn't that much demand for space and
         | it's not that profitable.
        
         | nickvec wrote:
         | A space company in the pursuit of profit... what could possibly
         | go wrong.
        
         | kakflelajf74 wrote:
         | How can I avoid my retirement and index funds being a part of
         | this garbage?
        
           | nutjob2 wrote:
           | Maybe someone will start selling a Nasdaq minus Musk index
           | fund.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | Don't buy it. If you don't have enough money to directly
           | index, don't waste time trying to pick stocks or time the
           | market.
        
       | mrinterweb wrote:
       | I feel the global instability could easily be very disruptive to
       | SpaceX. Just imagine if Russia gets vindictive and starts
       | destroying these satellites or blowing up their satellites to
       | create orbital debris that could knock satellites out of orbit. A
       | really bad solar storm could be devastating.
       | 
       | Just saying there are some decent risks, and pricing it at 1.75T
       | IPO seems risky enough. I would not take that gamble.
        
         | intrasight wrote:
         | > very disruptive to SpaceX
         | 
         | And to most everything else
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _imagine if Russia gets vindictive and starts destroying
         | these satellites_
         | 
         | Sounds like lots of demand for new launches from the military-
         | industrial complex.
         | 
         | > _imagine if Russia gets vindictive and starts destroying
         | these satellites_
         | 
         | Space is big. It's almost always cheaper to individually target
         | satellites than to try and blanket orbits. And with Starship vs
         | ASAT, the cheap drones are the satellites. Russia would
         | bankrupt itself trying to sink Starlink and Starshield.
         | 
         | (They would also set a precedent that would let the U.S. deny
         | China a LEO constellation.)
        
       | nutjob2 wrote:
       | Bloomberg link if you can't read the NYT:
       | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-01/spacex-is...
        
       | sroussey wrote:
       | SpaceX does internal sales of stock twice a year, so there will
       | not be pressure from existing stockholders to sell. But there
       | will be buyers. SpaceX is/was a great brand (before it became
       | SpaceTwitter).
        
       | panick21_ wrote:
       | I love space and they are an amazing company that I have been
       | following for almost 2 decades, but I wouldn't touch that IPO
       | with a 10 foot pool.
       | 
       | But the auto inclusion in Fortune 500 is basically cheating.
        
       | beej71 wrote:
       | Man, did I parse that badly. "Space(X files) to go public."
       | 
       | I'm a little disappointed now.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2026-04-01 23:00 UTC)