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Elon Musk is preparing to take SpaceX public through a Wall Street deal engineered to lock in his power, weaken basic shareholder rights, and let early insiders cash out while regular investors, including workers saving for retirement, could be left holding the bag. SpaceX may end up having a dual-class share structure that would give Musk and other insiders super-voting power while ordinary shareholders get far less say. That means the people whose retirement funds may end up buying SpaceX shares could be locked out of meaningful decisions over executive pay, board accountability, and if Musk can be removed from leadership. It gets worse. SpaceX is also positioned to take advantage of Texas corporate law changes and Trump administration SEC policies that make it harder for shareholders to uncover wrongdoing, bring lawsuits, or challenge insider self-dealing. The company could become the first to go public with a forced arbitration provision that strips shareholders of their day in court when corporate fraud or misconduct occurs. This is exactly why AFR’s work matters. We dig into the fine print Wall Street hopes the public never reads. We expose how corporate governance rules, SEC policy, index standards, and state law changes can be stitched together into one rigged system where billionaires get liquidity, insiders keep control, and workers absorb the downside.
SpaceX’s own reported valuation claims are staggering. A $1.75 trillion valuation is untethered from reality, especially for a company trying to enter public markets while insulating its most powerful insider from accountability. A public offering at that scale would be a jackpot for early investors and insiders, but the risk would land on ordinary people whose retirement accounts are pushed into the stock after the hype machine has already done its work. And now index providers are changing the rules in ways that could fast-track SpaceX into major funds before the market has had a real chance to price the company. That means teachers, firefighters, nurses, public servants, and millions of workers with 401(k)s and pensions could be forced into a Musk-controlled company arguably valued at wildly inflated levels with fewer protections than investors should ever accept. Musk’s record makes this even more dangerous. He has repeatedly put his own interests first, from self-dealing transactions to broken promises to moving resources between his companies. A public SpaceX structured around Musk’s unchecked control would not be innovative. It would be an oligarchy with a ticker symbol. We need the resources to keep sounding the alarm before this deal becomes the new model for corporate power. If SpaceX can tap public markets while stripping away accountability, other billionaire-led companies will follow the same playbook, and retirement savers will be pushed deeper into companies where they carry the risk but have almost no voice. Together, we can fight for public markets that serve workers, investors, and communities, not Elon Musk’s unchecked power. -Natalia. Natalia Renta (she/her)
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