MUMBAI: In a move that’s less rocket science and more rocket ownership, Elon Musk has doubled down on SpaceX quite literally. Musk increased his stake in the private space company last year by purchasing about $1.4 billion worth of shares from current and former employees, according to a report by The Information. The transaction, routed through Musk’s trust, was disclosed in a draft of SpaceX’s confidential IPO prospectus.
The filing also outlines an ambitious compensation structure that ties Musk’s future equity to eye-watering valuation milestones. He stands to receive 60 million additional shares if SpaceX’s valuation climbs from roughly $1.1 trillion to as much as $6.6 trillion. The shares will vest in stages, linked to incremental valuation jumps of $500 billion.
But this isn’t just about scale, it’s also about strategy. The incentive is tied to the company executing plans to build space-based data centres aimed at supporting artificial intelligence workloads, signalling a potential pivot towards orbital infrastructure for computing.
SpaceX, which confidentially filed for a US public listing in March, is already operating at significant scale. Earlier estimates peg its annual profit at around $8 billion, with revenue in the $15 billion to $16 billion range.
The proposed IPO structure suggests control will remain firmly in Musk’s orbit. The company plans a dual-class share system, where Class B shares carry 10 votes each, compared to one vote for Class A shares offered to public investors effectively ensuring that insiders retain decision-making power post-listing.
While Reuters could not independently verify the details and SpaceX has not commented, the contours are clear: this is a founder tightening his grip ahead of a potential market debut, even as the company eyes trillion-dollar and beyond territory.
