How Elon Musk Engineered the World’s Biggest I.P.O.

Brought to you by the Capital One Savor card. With Savor, you earn unlimited 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, and at grocery stores. That's unlimited cash back on ordering takeout from home or unlimited cash back on tickets to concerts and games. So grab a bite, grab a seat, and earn unlimited 3% cash back with the Sabre card. Capital One, what's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com for details. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. On Monday, the AI giant, Anthropic, filed paperwork to go public, turbocharging a coming wave of blockbuster IPOs that could mint the world's first trillionaire and remake American capitalism. The first of those IPOs will be Elon Musk's SpaceX set to begin selling shares as soon as next week. Today, business reporter Ryan Mack takes us inside the plan for SpaceX's record shattering debut on the stock market and explains how it's already changing the rules for investing in ways that mean its success or failure will affect all of us. It's Tuesday, June 2. Ryan, welcome to the show. Hey, Michael. Thanks for having me. My pleasure. A confession here. It's very rare for The Daily to cover an IPO, and that's because it's pretty rare that an IPO generates a level of interest and excitement and worry that the one we're gonna talk to you about today does. So my first question to you is why does this initial public offering of SpaceX matter so much and feel so monumental to so many people? I think it has everything to do with Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO. And like everything with Elon Musk, this IPO is singular. It's likely going to be the largest of all time, raising anywhere from 50 to $75,000,000,000. It's going to value this company likely at more than $1,250,000,000,000. Wow. And it could make Elon Musk already the richest man in the world, already one of the most powerful people in the world, the world's first trillionaire. Mhmm. And this opportunity to invest in this kind of one of a kind company, I think that excites a lot of people. It is a rocket manufacturer. It launches things into space for the government and for private companies, and it's also got this artificial intelligence bent to it as well. And what you're gonna see in this IPO is a large involvement of retail or mom and pop investors who are excited to invest in a company they see as run by a generational entrepreneur. Well, why is Musk trying to raise this money right now and through the method of an IPO? You don't have to make a company public to raise a lot of money. There are all kinds of ways to raise money. You don't have to take it public, but this company has been private for more than twenty years. It was founded in 2002, and it's raised a lot of money already on the …