Today, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX went public to investors with the largest IPO, or initial public offering, in history.
Musk is quite a polarizing figure, so many people have very strong opinions about one of his many business ventures going public and giving him the opportunity to make even more money in the process. The protesters have been going out to the streets and social media for weeks to express their displeasure with the SpaceX IPO, and it appears their concerns boil down to five main issues.
People protesting the SpaceX IPO are upset about these 5 things:
1. Some people will not be able to choose whether or not they want to invest in the company
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One of the biggest things that leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths is the fact that many people who have already invested in the stock market at some level will be stuck with SpaceX stock whether they like it or not.
In an article sarcastically titled “How Much SpaceX Are You About to Own?” the New York Times reported that anyone who has an index fund like a 401(k) will automatically receive a share of SpaceX because these funds “follow the broader market.”
Technically, this is standard for the stock market, and people will not receive large investments in SpaceX because not many of its shares are public yet. Many people still worried about how this could affect their portfolios However, if the company is not still profitable.
2. The valuation could be too high
A single share of SpaceX costs $135, meaning the company is valued at $1.77 trillion in total. morning stara company that provides information and resources to investors, actually valued the company’s shares at $63 each, which is obviously quite different.
Marvin Jung he told CNBC He thought the valuation was “very, very aggressive.” Jung, described as “a self-directed investor who trades in his spare time,” added: “It’s outrageous. It’s stupid. It’s unreasonable, to be quite honest with you.”
Of course, the company’s dubious high valuation has not affected its current success in any way. Jung admitted that, despite his doubts, he even applied for 1,000 shares himself.
3. It made the richest man in the world even richer
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Many of the criticisms leveled at SpaceX’s IPO appear to have more to do with its founder, Elon Musk, than with the company itself. Musk has held the title of the world’s richest person for some time now, and his net worth is inching closer to $1 trillion. With the success of the IPO, officially Today he became the world’s first billionaire.
Everyone is pretty used to the fact that Musk is incredibly rich by now, but people are worried about how this could affect the bigger picture. Anthropic and OpenAI are scheduled for their own IPOs later this year, meaning some of the other richest and most powerful people will likely follow in Musk’s footsteps, even if they don’t reach billionaire status.
Economist Gabriel Zucman explained that this means that the gap between rich and poor will continue to widen, which could have serious implications for the future of governments around the world. “There is a fundamental tension in democratic societies between extreme wealth… and the very possibility of a well-functioning democracy,” he said.
4. Many of Elon Musk’s past business decisions have been controversial.
Musk acquired Twitter several years ago and rebranded the social media platform as X. Among the changes he made to the app was the addition of an AI chatbot called Grok. At the beginning of the year the news emerged that Grok shared almost 2 million explicit images of women that users asked him to create over the course of nine days.
Previously, Musk’s employees also accused him of creating racist and sexist work environments. Many people are not thrilled with the idea that he is becoming astronomically rich despite a history of scandals, which even inspired some protesters to put up a Inflatable, shirtless replica of Musk in Times Square.
5. Elon Musk has become extremely active and influential in politics.
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Perhaps what has kept Musk in the news most recently is his involvement in the political arena. He aligned himself with Donald Trump and worked as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for several months at the beginning of Trump’s second term as president.
DOGE was meant to eliminate waste in government, but was highly criticized for laying off thousands of government employees and cutting funding for critical medical research and aid programs. With Musk’s work with the Trump administration complete, tried to found his own political party in an effort to “give you your freedom back,” but it didn’t really go anywhere.
Obviously, some have objections to Musk’s actions because they simply disagree with him politically, but others are more concerned about what it means for someone so wealthy to have a powerful federal role. Many people have been expressing their frustration with Musk and his influence since then, such as a group of professors who He protested outside a SpaceX facility..
Only time will tell if SpaceX lives up to the enormous expectations created by its IPO and how it will affect investors’ bank accounts, but in the meantime many people express skepticism.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and journalism covering news, psychology, lifestyle and human interest topics.
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