SpaceX’s IPO is here, and it’s more than just a historic public offering that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. It also reveals more ways in which Elon Musk’s companies interact and overlap with each other, mixing money in ways that are often difficult to track.
This is evident in obvious and less obvious ways. A CTRL-F search for “Tesla” yields 87 results, xAI is mentioned 356 times, and x is mentioned 267 times. Even The Boring Company (7 times) and Neuralink (3 times) got some mentions. Across its 330 pages of rocket launches and interplanetary desires, you can trace the web of ways Musk’s companies do business with each other.
This is also evident in the ways in which Musk’s companies are shareholders in other Musk companies, further intertwining their fates in the process. Based on its S-1 form, Tesla owns approximately 19 million shares of SpaceX’s Class A common stock, which is less than 1 percent of the total shares outstanding. Tesla’s stake in xAI was converted into SpaceX shares after Elon Musk merged his artificial intelligence company with his space company in February.
The filing also reveals that SpaceX purchased $131 million worth of Cybertrucks at Tesla’s “manufacturer’s suggested retail price.” A Bloomberg A report earlier this year indicated that SpaceX purchased 1,279 Cybertrucks in the fourth quarter of 2025, but the IPO suggests it may have acquired a few more than that. like Electric He notes that without these purchases, the Cybertruck’s registration numbers likely would have declined year over year.
Tesla’s Megapacks, the company’s giant stationary storage batteries, are being used to stabilize SpaceX’s Colossus I and Colossus I II data centers in Memphis, Tennessee, during peak demand. The rocket company will buy $697 million worth of Megapacks from Tesla in 2024 and 2025.
SpaceX’s relationship with Musk’s Boring Company is more bizarre by comparison. The tunneling project paid about $1.2 million in office rent to SpaceX. SpaceX spent about $1 million for The Boring Company to dig a tunnel at its headquarters in Bastrop, Texas.
SpaceX was valued at $1.25 trillion earlier this year after merging with xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company that also owns X, formerly known as Twitter. This connection means that investors will buy at a historically high price, but Musk has merged the two companies at great cost to himself and SpaceX as well. The filing showed that the rocket company directed about 60% of its capital spending in 2025 towards XAI, or about $20 billion. But as TechCrunch He notes that XAI lost billions of dollars last year on revenue that grew only 22 percent year-over-year.
When they go public, companies have to list their risk factors, assuming that investors should know all the skeletons in the closet before putting their money down. For SpaceX, the biggest risk is also its biggest asset: Elon Musk.
For SpaceX, the biggest risk is also its biggest asset: Elon Musk
While any company, especially one as complex as SpaceX, would be expected to include a long list of risk factors in its S-1, SpaceX is unique in that it has its own CEO. The filing explicitly states that SpaceX “is highly dependent on the ongoing services provided by Mr. Musk,” noting that his leadership, vision, and technical expertise are essential to the company’s future.
Like other companies owned by Musk, SpaceX acknowledges that Musk is not always 100 percent focused on SpaceX. He admits that Musk’s cross-cutting businesses may end up cannibalizing each other in some way. Conflicts can arise. If they do, Musk is not “locked in” to doing something that directly competes with his other companies, including SpaceX.
Conflicts of interest could arise in the future between us, on the one hand, and Mr. Musk and his owned or affiliated entities, on the other hand, with respect to, among other things, business transactions, potential competitive business activities or other opportunities…. Furthermore, Mr. Musk and other companies owned or affiliated with him may now, or in the future, compete directly or indirectly with us for investment or business opportunities.
The S-1 goes on to enumerate the ways in which Musk’s extensive entanglements could lead to financial loss for SpaceX. The company is completely dependent on his leadership, however it may also incur significant losses as a result of his leadership. (See: Tesla in 2025.)
For example, Mr. Musk is currently Technoking and CEO of Tesla and is involved in other tech startups, including Neuralink and The Boring Company. Mr. Musk also previously served as a senior advisor to the President of the United States. Any such loss or reduced participation in our business could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.
The pull between risk and reward is a running theme throughout the recording.
We, Mr. Musk, and other companies to which Mr. Musk is affiliated often receive an enormous amount of media attention. The actions and statements of Mr. Musk and his affiliated projects, whether directly related to us or not, may attract significant public attention and scrutiny to us and could potentially have a positive or negative impact on our business, our relationships with customers and regulators, or our stock price.
These aren’t statements you’d find in a regular S-1 filing, but SpaceX is not your typical IPO. Musk is expected to make billions if SpaceX creates a “permanent” colony on Mars with “at least” one million people. It’s also an attraction that could seriously damage SpaceX’s reputation. Musk’s companies do business with each other and are deeply intertwined with each other in ways made clear by the filing. They buy each other’s stuff and compete with each other for RAM, AI chips, and other high-value components that are increasingly in short supply.
Sometimes, its shareholders back out. In 2024, several Tesla shareholders filed a lawsuit against Musk over allegations that he was intentionally diverting talent and resources away from the company and toward advanced artificial intelligence (xAI). This lawsuit is still pending.
