Musk’s $1.8 trillion SpaceX IPO could be ‘highly undesirable’ for some

SpaceX is expected to debut on the United States’ public markets on Friday in what will be the largest initial public offering (IPOs).

Artificial intelligence (AI) giants OpenAI and Anthropic are also widely expected to go public soon, and thanks to a new rule change by tech stock exchange Nasdaq, individual investors could own stock of these companies when they go public in as soon as 15 business days following its first trading day.

SpaceX is valued at nearly $1.8 trillion, or $135 per share, surpassing Saudi Aramco, which debuted in 2019 at $1.7 trillion at what had so far been the biggest IPO.

SpaceX’s IPO is generating buzz among retail investors. The Elon Musk-led company is expected to allocate 20 percent of shares to retail investors and has drawn roughly $70bn in orders, according to the Reuters news agency.

Historically, there is a waiting period between when a company goes public and when it is listed on the Nasdaq-100 index and/or S&P 500. Companies typically must demonstrate profitability over the previous four quarters for the S&P 500 and three calendar months for the Nasdaq-100, excluding the month of listing. SpaceX lobbied for a waiver for so-called mega cap companies.

Musk’s efforts returned mixed results. In early May, Nasdaq made a rule change that could allow the Texas-based company to enter the index after just 15 trading days. S&P Dow Jones Indices, which runs the S&P 500 index, did not change its rules.

While there has been a lot of excitement for this IPO and it is oversubscribed at a rate of up to four times its planned offering as per US media reports, there are also concerns that it may be highly overvalued and that could expose especially retired investors who put their life savings in pension funds and don’t have a say in stocks that are chosen.

Analysts at MorningStar, for instance, have valued SpaceX at $63 a share, a 53 percent discount to the upcoming IPO price.