It seems hard to believe that what may shortly be the world\u2019s most valuable listed company will have as its overarching goal to put a million people on Mars and in the process \u201cto build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars\u201d. <\/p>\n
It says something about the state of our current home planet that this sort of values-free megalomaniacal nonsense is not laughed out of court. But Wall Street can see the money.<\/p>\n
Equally, it is hard to escape the rather queasy feeling that the authors might be serious. <\/p>\n
If all of that was not bad enough, the truly alarming thing is that anyone who has a pension invested in the stock market (pretty much everybody with a private pension) will be helping to fund this nonsense. More of that later. <\/p>\n
First SpaceX<\/a>. As pretty much everybody knows, the rockets-to-nudifying business is being brought to the market by Elon Musk<\/a>. It is an amalgam of several of his ventures, some successful, some simply barmy, and others probably dangerous. All else being equal, it will debut on the Nasdaq<\/a> this month valued at somewhere between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion (\u20ac1.5 trillion and \u20ac1.7 trillion). A trillion has 12 zeros, if you are wondering. <\/p>\n The core of the company is Musk\u2019s successful satellite internet business Starlink<\/a>, which has almost total dominance in the market. It makes plenty of money. <\/p>\n The second leg of the stool is his rocket business, SpaceX. It does not make money, but it is busy launching satellites for Starlink and also taking cargoes into space for other organisations such as Nasa<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\u00a0SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic: a mega-IPO wave is comingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Rocket ships are inherently unprofitable, and prior to the advent of SpaceX and some less successful rivals such as Jeff Bezos<\/a>\u2019s Blue Origin, they had been the preserve of governments, and mostly still are. It remains one of the last unconquered territories of late-stage US capitalism. <\/p>\n Wrapped up with these two businesses is Musk\u2019s deeply unprofitable artificial intelligence business and associated social media company, X<\/a>. <\/p>\n The pitch is that through a combination of Starlink and the rocket business, SpaceX will build a network of solar-powered data centres in space that will lead to dominance of artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n Will it work? Maybe. And why should we be concerned? <\/p>\n Good for Musk if he can convince fools to part with their money for a stake in a company that overall does not make a profit, has $29 billion in debt and is held together by a rather strange individual\u2019s messianic desire to conquer Mars.<\/p>\n And it is very much the Elon Musk show. He will have 85 per cent of the voting power through \u201csuper-voting shares\u201d. <\/p>\n Shareholders will have no say in how the company is run. If and when he makes a mess of things, they will find it very hard to sue him because of various waivers. The board \u2013 that entity that is supposed to look out for shareholders – is loaded with Musk loyalists.<\/p>\n The reason you should care is that even if you think SpaceX is a disaster waiting to happen, you should be aware that you probably have some skin in the game. <\/p>\n The sheer size of the company means that pension funds \u2013 quite possibly yours \u2013 will be obliged to invest.<\/p>\n