SpaceX, moving closer to its initial public offering (IPO), disclosed a rare arrangement: up to 5% of the IPO shares will be preferentially allocated to employees and individuals designated by management, with a portion of these shares exempt from the traditional six-month lock-up period following the listing.
SpaceX’s latest amended IPO filing shows that the company plans to allocate up to 5% of the shares offered in the IPO to certain employees and individuals designated by management through a directed share program, exempting these shares from post-listing lock-up restrictions.
According to the filing, these shares will be sold at the IPO offering price, with participants selected at the discretion of company executives. If these shares remain unsubscribed, they will be reoffered to public investors. However, SpaceX did not disclose the final allocation percentage or specific eligibility criteria.
Directed share programs allow companies to prioritize allocating a portion of IPO shares to employees, customers, or partners. Previously, $Airbnb (ABNB.US)$ 、 $Uber Technologies (UBER.US)$ 、 $Rivian Automotive (RIVN.US)$ and other companies have used similar arrangements. When it went public in 2010, $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ it also reserved a portion of shares for purchase by employees, business partners, customers, and related parties.
This disclosure further highlights SpaceX’s departure from traditional IPO share structures. Most publicly listed companies typically impose a roughly six-month lock-up period on insider-held shares, whereas SpaceX plans to phase out sale restrictions on certain shares based on company performance and stock price.
According to the prospectus, eligible shareholders may sell shares as early as shortly after the company releases its first quarterly earnings report following the IPO, with additional tranches becoming available over time, and the remaining shares fully tradable after six months.
However, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has agreed not to sell any of his shares for approximately one year following the IPO. The filing states that Musk currently holds 85.1% of the company’s voting power and owns 12.3% of its Class A shares. Other significant investors are also subject to a one-year lock-up, though their exact shareholdings were not disclosed.
Following Elon Musk’s push earlier this year to merge SpaceX with artificial intelligence company xAI, SpaceX’s valuation has reached approximately $1.25 trillion. The company is now seeking a valuation of around $1.75 trillion and plans to raise approximately $75 billion through its IPO, which could become one of the largest IPOs in history.
Market sources indicate that SpaceX could launch its roadshow as early as this week and list on Nasdaq around June 12. Goldman Sachs had actively sought to serve as lead underwriter, while Morgan Stanley is handling the execution of this private placement offering.
The revised filing also disclosed SpaceX’s partnership with artificial intelligence company Anthropic. Anthropic is both a major customer for SpaceX’s AI business and a potential competitor. The two parties have signed a large-scale cloud computing services agreement, though the contract permits either party to terminate early upon satisfying specified notice requirements.
Notably, Anthropic also announced on Monday that it has confidentially submitted its IPO filing. With Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX all advancing their public listing plans, the artificial intelligence and space technology sectors are entering a new wave of IPO activity.
Editor/Joe