https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radi...ex-completed-biggest-ipo-history.-yes-economy
Listen from 1:01-10:47
You may be invested in this whether you want to or not. It'll be a part of the index.
In the public filing it talks about "extending the light of consciousness to the stars", putting a million people on Mars, asteroid mining, orbital factories etc.
Fishy as fuck!
(Obtained from AI)
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1. Institutional Investors (70% of Allocation)
The majority of the shares were bought by large institutional investors and asset managers. Roughly
1,000 institutional investors submitted orders, with total demand exceeding
$250 billion.
- Major Buyers: Prominent firms included BlackRock (which reportedly ordered $5 billion worth of shares), Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz.
- Existing Stakeholders: Early backers like Alphabet (Google) (which invested in 2015) and Valor Equity Partners (led by Antonio Gracias) held significant pre-IPO stakes but did not sell them in the IPO; the offering consisted entirely of new shares issued by SpaceX to raise capital.
2. Retail Investors (20–30% of Allocation)
In a departure from typical IPOs where retail investors receive only 5–10% of shares, SpaceX earmarked roughly
30% ($22.5 billion) for individual investors.
- Access: Shares were distributed directly through major brokerage platforms including Robinhood, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, SoFi, and E*TRADE.
- Demand: Retail demand was massive, with over $70 billion in orders placed through these platforms. However, due to oversubscription, most individual investors received only a fraction of the shares they requested (e.g., an investor requesting 1,000 shares might have received only 17).
Institutional investors bought into SpaceX before the public could trade the stock.
- Institutional Purchase Date: Institutions finalized their purchases on Wednesday, June 11, 2026, when the IPO price was set at $135 per share. Their allocations were confirmed that evening, and funds were committed prior to the market opening the next day.
- Public Trading Start: The general public (retail investors and public market traders) could only buy and sell shares starting Friday, June 12, 2026, when the stock officially began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX.
This means institutional investors secured their shares at the fixed IPO price roughly
12 to 24 hours before the first public trade occurred. While some retail investors were able to place orders through brokers like
Robinhood and
Fidelity during the pre-market window on June 12, these orders were executed at the opening market price (which surged to ~$161), not the $135 IPO price secured by institutions the day prior.
Based on the official
SEC filings (S-1/A) and the final prospectus, here are the critical details regarding the
SpaceX IPO structure and risk perspective:
1. The Filing Timeline & Structure
- Public Filing Date: The initial S-1 was filed publicly on May 20, 2026, with the final pricing amendment (S-1/A) filed on June 3, 2026.
- Share Classes: The filing established a dual-class structure:
- Class A (Public): 1 vote per share.
- Class B (Insiders): 10 votes per share.
- Control: Despite owning only ~42% of the equity, Elon Musk controls approximately 79–82% of the voting power post-IPO. This designates SpaceX as a "controlled company," exempting it from certain Nasdaq corporate governance requirements (e.g., independent board majority).
2. "Ticking Time Bomb": Dilution Risks
The prospectus highlights significant future dilution risks that were not immediately priced in by Day 6 retail buyers:
- Mandatory Stock Issuance: To fund the $19.8 billion EchoStar spectrum deal (closing Nov 2027), SpaceX must issue 261.8 million new shares at a fixed price of $42.40, regardless of the current market price.
- Cursor Acquisition Option: SpaceX holds an option to acquire AI firm Cursor for $60 billion in stock. If exercised by Sept 30, 2026, this would issue roughly 444 million new shares, increasing the share count by ~5% instantly.
- Authorized Shares: The company has authorized itself to issue over 31 billion additional Class A shares in the future, more than double the current outstanding count.
3. Financial Reality vs. Valuation
- Immediate Dilution: Investors buying at $135 faced immediate accounting dilution, as the pro forma book value per share was only $7.85. This means 94% of the IPO price was not backed by tangible assets.
- Profitability: While Starlink generated $4.5 billion in operating profit, the consolidated entity posted a $4.9 billion net loss in 2025 due to massive capital expenditures in xAI and Starship.
- Debt Load: The filing disclosed $29.1 billion in long-term debt as of March 2026.
4. Allocation Controversy
- Institutional Priority: The filing confirmed that 100% of the shares sold were new shares issued by the company; no early investors or employees sold their stakes (no "secondary" sales).
- Allocation Failures: Despite being listed in SEC filings as committed buyers, some international institutions (e.g., Mirae Asset Securities in South Korea) received zero shares due to oversubscription, forcing their clients to buy at the higher open-market price on Day 1.