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Like many highly prise startups , SpaceXsometimes allow itsemployees to cash out some of their shares by sellingto company - authorized outside investors .
TechCrunch has gotten a peek at an internalSpaceXdocument about such a tender offer from May 2022 . Muskposted on Xlast calendar month that SpaceX adjudge such sales for employees about every 6 month .
With SpaceX ’s latest pinnace offer sale , which come in December , 2024,according to CNBC , now valuing the fellowship at $ 350 billion , we are republishing our analytic thinking of this written document primitively published in June , 2024 .
These documents declare oneself interesting insights into the investor who are authorized to buy these secondary portion , and the undecomposed deals they get .
In this offering , investors pay $ 70 per share to employees , the text file depict . That ’s an enormous bargain equate to the share Price investor pay when invest in primary rounds — where the ship’s company sells the share straight to raise capital .
During the primary sale in 2022 , portion live for $ 270 . ( SpaceX has n’t sell part in a main round at a $ 70 damage since its Series G go for $ 77.46 per share , the documents say . That was back in 2015 , according to PitchBook . )
Of of course , the main cause for the elephantine price reduction in price isthat employee own common stockand investors who buy into main rounds typically purchase preferred stock that entitles them to dividend and liquidation preferences . They are the first to be paid their investment back if the companionship ever sells itself .
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In fact , this doc disclose that as of 2022 , if SpaceX sell itself , the first $ 6.67 billion would be owe to preferable stockholder . Since then , the company has raisedanother $ 750 million , so that meat first paid to investor should likely be increased by at least that amount . Should SpaceX actually overlook its astronomical current evaluation of$350 billion , these settlement preferences — give out investor first — wo n’t be a trouble for employees or other uncouth stock shareholders . But if one day the company goes for an under-$7 billion fire sale , common stockholders could get nothing .
In terms of the dividend , as tardy as 2019 , internal documents get wind by TechCrunch said that SpaceX never paid any . But if its board of music director want to hold dividends , they would be paid out in fixed amounts establish on when investors bought shares . Those amount range from a few centime per share for share bought in its earliest and cheapest round , to over $ 10 a share for those bought in later and most expensive rounds .
For employees , the intelligence about their shares in 2022 was especially good . In February 2022 , SpaceX did a 10 - for-1 bloodline split of its Class A , B , and C common shares . The preferred shares were not split . The documents do n’t make vindicated what the departure are between the unlike course of study of common shares . In public fellowship , different year often have different voting rights . For example , one class of shares hold by the laminitis might have 10 ballot per share , allow founder to retain dominance of their companies while selling parcel and cashing out .
In this case , it ’s not clear when , if ever , SpaceX will go public . Secondary sales like this remain one of the only ways that employee have to deal their parcel .
Another moment of salutary news for employees in this sale was that the $ 70 per share Mary Leontyne Price was an improvement over the previous tender of $ 56 when adjusting for the breed split , Bloomberg describe at the time . AndBloomberg also reportedearlier in 2024 that the next tender offer may be as mellow as $ 108 to $ 110 apiece . In December , Bloomberg reported that investor were extend to bear $ 185 a share .
Which investors got to buy?
One of the most interesting revelations in these 2022 documents was that only a handful of investors were named as authorised emptor . And most of them were among the SpaceX sphere , so to talk , mean the investor are either vocal supporters of SpaceX founder Elon Musk or have had other , historically close ties .
They were :
Andreessen Horowitz(a16z ) was authorized to buy nearly 4.3 million shares for almost $ 300 million . Interestingly , a16z is n’t a historical longtime major investor in SpaceX but managed to get on its pileus mesa in a openhanded path in the company’s$250 million raise in August , 2022,according to PitchBook . It also became a lead investor of SpaceX ’s $ 750 million round , at a $ 137 billion rating in 2023,CNBC report .
The firm ’s conscientious objector - founder , Marc Andreessen , has known Musk for the decades that they ’ve run in the same Silicon Valley tech billionaire traffic circle . In the past few year , he has become a Musk champion , expressing appreciation for the SpaceX , Tesla , and X CEO in all sorts of ways , fromhow Musk uses his money to keep launch startupsto applaudingMusk ’s pertinacity . Andreessen even publicly debated billionaire and rival VC Vinod Khosla ( backer of OpenAI ) on X ( owned by Musk ) after Khosla praise OpenAIshortly after Musk sued OpenAI.The debate caught Musk ’s attention .
Aliya Capital Partnersis link up with Aliya Growth Fund , which was clear to buy just over 1.4 million shares for almost $ 100 million . Aliya is a family authority for the wealthy in Miami thatsaysSpaceX is one of its largest retention . Aliya — which has stakes in many prized startups like Figure AI , Impossible Foods , Anduril — notably chip in $ 360 million when Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $ 44 billion , Reuters report . Even after Musk read an quick ax to Twitter headcount , andhis direction dash caused others ( and advertisers ) to fly , Aliya remained publicly affirmative . “ We consider Twitter will produce a retort of 4 - 5x in just a few yr , with comparably circumscribed downside risk , ” Aliya chief executive director Ross Kestin told Reuters in December 2022 .
Gigafund , whose co - founder is a SpaceX board appendage , was apportion over 1.4 million portion at a cost of nearly $ 100 million . Gigafund was co - found by fellow PayPal Maffia extremity Luke Nosek who joined Peter Thiel when he founded Founders Fund . Thiel and Musk are , of track , fellow PayPal mafia members . At Founders Fund , Nosek lead the first VC investment funds into Space X , took a panel tush , and has been on the board ever since . He left Founders Fund in 2017 to launch Gigafund . Gigafund ’s cobalt - beginner , Stephen Oskoui , is also a former Founders Fund investor and has conduct the house into pile with other Musk companies , include Neuralink and the Boring Company .
137 Venturesis link with 137 Holdings , which was authorized to bribe just under 1.1 million share at a price of nearly $ 75 million . 137 Ventures is a VC fund that ’s interesting becauseits arrogate to fame is these kinds of secondary purchases . founder Justin Fishner - Wolfson and Alex Jacobson run across while at Founders Fund , working on its SpaceX investment . When Musk originally lobby Thiel and Founders Fund to back his new rocket company at the time , the original investment in SpaceX was going to be around $ 5 million until Fishner - Wolfson advocated that it be much bigger . Founders Fund wander up indite a arrest that was about 20 % of its fundand has continued to take large positions in other SpaceX rounds from other funds , Fishner - Wolfson told TechCrunch ’s Connie Loizos in 2020 . He launched 137 Ventures in 2011 .
Point 2 Prove Investmentwas allocated 1 million shares , which cost $ 70 million . Point 2 Prove see like a special purpose fomite led by the close global investment firmVy Capital , consort toSEC Form Dfrom July 2022 . Vy was founded by Alexander Tamas , who spent his formative years at Yuri Milner ’s DST . While Tamas does n’t say much in public , and therefore is n’t a vocal Musk supporter , his company committed $ 700 million to Musk ’s Twitter leverage , Bloomberg describe at the time . Vy also has a SpaceX post and has invested in a number of other Musk companies like Boring and Neuralink . Aprospectusfor a Vy fund asserts that Tamas was the investor who secured for DST its early stakes in companies like Facebook , Airbnb , Spotify , Twitter , Alibaba and others . Marc Andreessen and his VC firm co - father Ben Horowitz once described Tamas to Bloomberg as : “ He ’s on speed - dial for everyone trying to establish the most successful , high - plate , globular Internet company today . ”
Atreides Managementis associated with Atreides Special Circumstances Fund , which was apportion intimately 429,000 shares at a monetary value of most $ 30 million . The laminitis of Boston - based hedging fund Atreides , Gavin Baker , goes way back with SpaceX. Before set up Atreides in January 2019 , Gavin spent 18 old age at Fidelity , uprise to superintend the $ 17 billion Fidelity OTC Fund , his website say . He made his first investment in SpaceX while at Fidelity , and in 2022 SpaceX was Atreides ’ great position among the VC part of its monetary fund , Bloomberg reported . ( Atreides had $ 3 billion in assets under direction that year but currently has about $ 4 billion AUM , according toa recent SEC filing . ) The investment firm has also had a significant stake in Tesla since 2019 . And Baker is a public supporter of Musk . Just this monthhe penned a long post on Xadvocating toreinstate Musk ’s $ 56 billion Tesla bear packageand backing Musk ’s desire to move Tesla ’s incorporation to Texas .
TCP Exploration Fund 2022was allocated over 357,000 shares for nearly $ 25 million . This is a fund associated with LA’sTroy Capital Partnersfounded by Myspace founder Josh Berman , according to SEC Form D. However , byseveral write up , Troy ’s managing partner , Anthony Tucker , is the one responsible for Troy ’s SpaceX investment funds . Troy has been a angel since SpaceX ’s Series J around in 2019 , which respect the company at about $ 28 billion mail service - money , according to PitchBook . Troy , which emphasizes LA - based companies ( although does n’t restrict itself to them ) , was also an investor in the now - defunct Hyperloop One that had hop-skip to work up rapid undercover transport between San Francisco and LA base on Musk ’s idea .
In improver , this SpaceX sale also authorized two more investor to buy about another $ 50 million shares commingle as well , although the paperwork lead was too sparse on both of them for us to determine their associations to Musk .
SpaceX and all of the funds did not respond to multiple requests for comment except for Atreides , which declined commentary .
Update : This narration primitively published June 19 , 2024 , and was update January 1 , 2025 , to include SpaceX ’s latest valuation .
