Elon Musk took to X late Saturday to directly contradict multiple blockbuster reports that claimed SpaceX was on the verge of becoming the world’s first $800 billion private company through a massive insider share sale.
Bloomberg, Reuters, CNBC, Fortune, and The Information had all published stories on Friday and early Saturday citing sources familiar with the matter, stating that SpaceX was in advanced talks to final-stage discussions for a tender offer that would value the rocket and satellite giant between $750 billion and $800 billion. If completed at the top end, the deal would have instantly made SpaceX more valuable than the combined market caps of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Airbus, and Netflix put together, and would have eclipsed OpenAI’s recent $500 billion post-money valuation as the highest ever for a private tech company.
Musk wasted no time pushing back.
“There has been a lot of press claiming @SpaceX is raising money at $800B, which is not accurate,” the SpaceX CEO and founder posted on X at 11:42 p.m. ET Saturday. He continued: “SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and does periodic stock buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity for employees and investors. Valuation increments are a function of progress with Starship and Starlink…”
In plain English: SpaceX is not raising new primary capital at an $800 billion valuation. The company is simply running its routine semi-annual employee and early-investor liquidity program (a tender offer or buyback), something it has done like clockwork since going private in 2019. While secondary shares may indeed be changing hands at prices implying a dramatically higher valuation, Musk stressed that this is not a fundraising round and the eye-pop