SpaceX began pitching its IPO to retail investors early Thursday, releasing a video in which Chief Financial Officer Brett Johnsen joins the dots between the company’s rocket, satellite and AI businesses.
The 17-minute presentation is part of the Elon Musk-led company’s efforts to attract retail investors from around the world. These buyers are a key part of SpaceX’s strategy in the IPO, with up to 30% of the $75 billion offering being allocated to the group, Bloomberg News reported.
The first and only person to appear in the video is Johnsen, who introduces himself as the company’s only CFO to date. It is hosted on the company’s website, spacexipo.com, and features a prominent blurb encouraging visitors to create a brokerage account.
“Elon founded SpaceX with the goal of changing humanity, making us a multiplanetary species,” Johnsen said. “What’s really exciting is that we’ve been able to extend that vision with the Starlink constellation and AI solutions.”
The roadshow details several future goals, including raising gross profit margins from 49% last year to about 70% and net profit margins from -26% last year to about 45%, although no deadlines were specified.
In a video, the company outlined its lofty ambitions, which include putting data centers in space, reusable rockets and the Starlink satellite system to provide broadband internet access to Earth.
“We are accomplishing things that others think are truly impossible,” he said, highlighting achievements such as being the first private company to send a liquid-filled rocket into orbit, the first to successfully dock a spacecraft to the International Space Station, and the development of a fleet of reusable rockets.
SpaceX’s roadshow presentation is also filled with references to the company’s rocket activities. For example, the company’s “Repeatable Business Model” description starts at 7 and counts down to “Launch.”
Other slides highlight Musk’s business philosophy. For example, in “Algorithms”, step 1 is “make the requirements stupider”, then “remove parts or process steps”.
Johnsen also mentioned SpaceX’s large capital expenditures, which were recently exceeded by its acquisition of xAI in February.
“We are not alone in making meaningful investments in capital expenditures, particularly in the AI side of the business right now,” Johnsen said. “This has been the bulk of our capital spending over the past two years.”
Johnsen presented a slide, which is also reflected in SpaceX’s application, detailing future space applications the company may pursue. It involved point-to-point travel. It’s a concept that involves using Starship to deliver cargo and even people to far-flung destinations around the globe in record time.
Johnsen also highlighted asteroid mining, an unproven business case that SpaceX didn’t show much interest in before its IPO.
The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., sold 555.6 million shares at a price of $135 per share, giving it a market capitalization of about $1.77 trillion, according to a Wednesday filing. It will trade under the symbol SPCX at the June 11th price.
Hughes and Glash write for Bloomberg.
