The intense fervor surrounding investment in Elon Musk’s aerospace firm, SpaceX, has sparked a commotion that is drowning out the facts.
SpaceX is privately held, and its shares are not publicly traded. The shareholders include financiers, company executives, and staff.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA), is believed to own a majority stake in SpaceX, ranging between 40-50%.
Accessing Shares through Private Sales
Certain individuals associated with SpaceX have the authorization to engage in private share sales through the company’s internal trading program. Moreover, there are platforms where accredited investors can purchase shares from these authorized sellers.
Rainmaker Securities is one such platform, having traded over $4 billion in SpaceX shares. However, the services of Rainmaker are exclusively available to accredited investors, individuals with a trading license or substantial income.
For the vast majority, it must be recognized that SpaceX shares are not accessible to private investors.
Speculative Spin-Off Rumors
Rumors about an initial public offering (IPO) began circulating after reports emerged in mid-November suggesting that Musk was considering spinning off SpaceX’s Starlink satellite subsidiary.
Musk refuted these rumors, asserting that an IPO would only materialize once Starlink had met specific financial targets.
It’s time to exercise discretion.
During the second phase of the cryptocurrency rally, the market was inundated with new coins daily. In 2018, at the peak of the cryptocurrency frenzy, over 80% of initial coin offerings were identified as scams, according to research by Satis Group.
Now, with the exuberance surrounding all things Musk or SpaceX-related, scammers are preying on the eager individuals hoping to secure a share of the company, recently valued at over $180 billion through private sales of its shares.
“A common ploy among online scammers is to entice victims into a group chat with the promise of an investment opportunity, but it’s all a ruse to swindle money from users,” said Jordan Liles at Snopes, the fact-checking website, which has noticed an uptick in SpaceX scams.
Benzinga recently observed a Facebook group promising the opportunity to invest in SpaceX, but the content disappeared from the platform, prompting concerns about its authenticity.
Exercise patience. A Starlink IPO is likely on the horizon. Some analysts suggest that it has already attained the financial milestones outlined by Musk, making it IPO-ready.
In the meantime, Benzinga has proposed alternative investment avenues for those eager to partake in the burgeoning U.S. corporate space race.