‘Catastrophic Governance Structure’ and Murky Financials Complicate SpaceX IPO

A Danish pension fund, Akademikerpension, has blacklisted SpaceX ahead of its June IPO, citing a "catastrophic governance structure" and a valuation it calls "pure fantasy." The fund's decision follows concerns over SpaceX's merger with xAI, which recorded a $2.5 billion operating loss in the first quarter, and conflicting statements from Elon Musk about a potential $15 billion-a-year leasing deal with Anthropic. The move highlights growing investor unease over the company's financial transparency and long-term prospects as it targets a valuation of at least $1.8 trillion.

Elon Musk will soon sell shares of SpaceX to the public https://gizmodo.com/spacex-officially-files-ipo-and-plans-to-be-traded-as-spcx-2000761643 . With weeks left until what could be the biggest IPO to ever hit the market https://gizmodo.com/2026-is-poised-to-be-the-year-of-the-tech-ipo-will-it-also-be-the-year-the-ai-bubble-bursts-2000704395 , investors are getting a bit worried. A Danish pension fund, Akademikerpension, decided on Friday to place SpaceX on its black list, barring all of its fund managers from purchasing SpaceX shares and deeming the company too risky for investment. The fund believes that SpaceX’s valuation is “pure fantasy” and its governance structure is “extremely poor,” according to a statement shared with Gizmodo. According to the latest reports https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-29/spacex-lowers-ipo-valuation-target-to-at-least-1-8-trillion?fromMostRead=true , SpaceX is targeting a valuation of at least $1.8 trillion when it goes public in June, down from earlier reports that put the company’s goal above $2 trillion. The valuation is based on financial details SpaceX disclosed in its Form S-1 filing with the SEC, but the pension fund argues that the figure is wildly inflated. The current market hype might drive the stock high in the short term, the fund says, but pricing “appears to be driven more by Elon Musk’s narratives than by economic realities,” and it is not hopeful about the company’s long-term prospects. SpaceX’s financials are complicated thanks to its latest merger. SpaceX was founded decades ago as a space exploration company, hence the name. But earlier this year, Musk merged it with xAI, the AI company he founded in 2023 to compete with OpenAI, which owns both social media platform X and the controversy-loving chatbot Grok. https://gizmodo.com/researchers-put-ai-models-in-charge-of-a-simulated-society-grok-oversaw-a-crime-spree-2000764689 While the space business and its crown jewel, Starlink https://gizmodo.com/delta-ceo-details-why-he-thinks-amazon-leo-beats-starlink-2000761502 , do fairly well, the AI business is burning through cash. According to the IPO filing https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026036936/spaceexplorationtechnologi.htm aka the Form S-1 , xAI recorded a $2.5 billion operating loss in the first quarter of this year. Musk is hoping to up that AI spending even further as he literally aims for the stars with his dream of building a colony of space-based AI data centers https://gizmodo.com/elon-musks-latest-outlandish-plan-is-a-giant-chip-factory-in-texas-2000736620 . That valuation is supported by SpaceX’s current financial projections, but some of those assumptions came under scrutiny this week after Musk posted about the company’s deal with Anthropic on X. Musk said S https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-is-already-preparing-to-evict-anthropic-from-spacexs-data-center-2000764631 paceX could potentially walk away from a $15 billion-a-year leasing agreement with the AI company https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-is-already-preparing-to-evict-anthropic-from-spacexs-data-center-2000764631 , suggesting the company’s actual revenue could fall well short of the $45 billion investors had been expecting. “The odd thing is that either Musk is correct and the S-1 is materially misleading, or the S-1 is correct and Elon is up to his old hijinx,” Columbia Law School professor Eric Talley told CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/29/spacex-skeptics-concerned-as-musk-comments-diverge-from-ipo-filing.html this week. “But more than that, it’s confusing to investors who are trying best they can to put a valuation on SpaceX.” SpaceX has not committed to leasing Colossus for years, although it’s possible that may be what happens. This is a 180 day lease with 90 day notice mutual cancellation thereafter. The short term was our request, not Anthropic’s. We won’t leave them hanging and will provide a… — Elon Musk @elonmusk May 28, 2026 With all the uncertainty, SpaceX’s value “cannot reasonably exceed USD 1 trillion” even under the most optimistic assumptions, Akademikerpension argues, making the stock at least 80% overvalued according to their calculations. Another problem is the newly established governance structure, which has SpaceX founder Musk serve as CEO, CTO, and chair of the board while also holding the majority of the voting shares. With this structure in place, Musk is virtually unimpeachable, and the board holds practically no power over him, https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-explains-why-the-spacex-board-must-be-powerless-to-fire-him-2000759622 an unusual corporate governance structure. With Musk holding the bulk of SpaceX shares, the governance structure could also assist him in becoming the world’s first trillionaire when the IPO hits Nasdaq next month. “If this were solely about responsible investment, SpaceX would have been excluded in the blink of an eye because of its catastrophic governance structure,” Akademikerpension chief investment officer Anders Schelde said. “In our view, Tesla already has the worst governance structure among the world’s largest listed companies—and SpaceX is even worse.” The fund also notes that “several of the largest U.S. pension funds” have raised similar concerns about the corporate restructuring. Earlier this month, leaders of the three biggest U.S. public pension systems criticized Musk’s influence over SpaceX in a public letter https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/letter-to-spacex-re-ipo-from-nyc-comptroller-levine-nys-comptroller-dinapoli-and-calpers-ceo-frost/ , calling it the “most management-favorable governance structure ever brought to the U.S. public markets at this scale.”