Elon Musk’s space exploration company has filed preliminary paperwork to sell shares to the public, according to two sources familiar with the filing, a blockbuster offering that would likely rank as the biggest ever and could make its founder the world’s first trillionaire.
A SpaceX IPO promises to be one of the biggest Wall Street events of the year, with several investment banks lining up to help raise tens of billions to fund Musk’s ambitions to set up a base on the moon, put datacenters the size of several football fields in orbit and possibly one day send a man to Mars.
It’s a desperation move…
A “private” company is valued at what offers you accept. Sell 1% for $100 million, and it’s a billion dollar company you own 99% of and can take loans out with that as collateral.
Publicly traded, and the total worth is determined by the highest someone will pay to buy the stock.
It’s still just opinion, but the founder losses the control of what they’ll sell for.
If nobody wants it unless it’s $5, then that changes the value of everyone’s stock regardless of how much they have or what they’d sell it for. And that means if it’s collateral for loans, banks can force the sale of those stocks at any price to recoup their money