Elon Musk says he thought SpaceX would fail in its initial public offering
Elon Musk said in a speech at SpaceX’s IPO that he thinks SpaceX will fail.
Elon Musk opened the Nasdaq market on Friday, June 12, announcing the availability of shares in his commercial rocket company SpaceX.
SpaceX’s initial public offering was the largest IPO in history. The move also made Musk, the co-founder and leader of Tesla, Neuralink and The Boring Company, the world’s first millionaire.
Musk, who also owns social media platform X as part of SpaceX, said his company wants to launch up to 1 million AI satellites into space to operate orbital data centers. SpaceX also includes Starlink internet service.
SpaceX, founded in 2002, appears unlikely, Musk said Friday morning over a video link between SpaceX’s headquarters and the Nasdaq Market site in New York. He thought the company “would fail.”
Nevertheless, Musk said the company’s mission is important and different from competing space companies, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
“They simply weren’t pursuing the technology needed to make life multiplanetary, to make Star Trek, to make the exciting sci-fi futures we read about come true,” Musk said. “That’s what SpaceX is about…to take the fiction out of science fiction.”
Musk announced SpaceX plans to build a city on the moon as part of its goal to colonize Mars.
Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
