Investor's Corner
[Updated] Insider reveals possible SpaceX IPO, Tesla shareholders will reportedly have early access
SpaceX is preparing to IPO this year, according to a leaked report posted to a trading forum and tipped off to Teslarati. A user by the name of Jushuatree provides very specific detail in what will likely be the most anticipated and talked about IPO in the last decade.
Updated: SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell issued a statement confirming that there are no plans for a SpaceX initial public offering, contrary to Empire Capital’s original communication to its investors.
Updated: Teslarati was able to connect with Empire Capital Partners via phone call and speak to a representative in regards to the reported email sent by the firm. Empire Capital Partners confirmed the email, however also qualified it by saying they were reaching out to clients floating the idea of a SpaceX IPO in an attempt to gather more interest from clients in Tesla, Inc. They do not have any evidence of SpaceX preparing for an IPO, and they believed the best way to gain potential early interest is through an investment in Tesla.
The post reveals that Empire Capital Partners, a hedge fund focused on the technology sector, is soliciting interest in a pre-IPO for SpaceX and telling investors that the company has positioned a large stake in Tesla. Reportedly, Tesla investors will have exclusive early access to buy into the “Biggest opportunity of the decade” as soon as the initial public offering is released.
While news of a SpaceX IPO will likely trigger mass interest from institutional investors and Tesla shareholders, it’s important to note that a long process awaits before the Elon Musk-backed space company goes public. SpaceX has not yet filed an S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which can take upwards of 30 days to review, not including any time required for additional amendments made to the filing. The S-1 filing allows the company to submit financial information to the SEC ahead of launching on the public markets. Companies looking to make an initial public offering then proceed with a “roadshow” to convince institutional investors to invest in the company. After that, the company would set the pricing of the IPO and begin the offering.
[Update: Empire Capital Partners, in fact, has no relation with a hedge fund run by Scott Fine and Peter Richards. The compay’s official entity is Empire Capital GP, LLC]
Empire Capital Partners is a global asset manager, based in Connecticut, with $1.13B in assets and was founded in 2005. ECP was founded by Scott A. Fine and Peter J. Richards, and they have participated in several large IPOs including Box, Square, Twitter, Fitbit, and Esty. The company lists SpaceX as a partner on their website and a featured investment that is “live” to their customers.
According to the insider note posted to Sharetrader, ECP has a “10-year history of substantial financial investment” with SpaceX. The note indicates that the hedge fund has been working on the deal for the past 18-months and looking forward to presenting “the biggest pre-IPO opportunity of 2017, maybe even the decade” to its investors.
“Empire Capital Partners is proud to present to you, the fantastic opportunity, in which you are able to take full advantage by getting involved at the ground level. This is sure to be the biggest pre-IPO opportunity of 2017, maybe even the decade. SpaceX is the brainchild of Elon Musk, a highly undervalued company founded in 2002. SpaceX raised $1 billion from Google Inc. and Fidelity Ventures in January 2015. This investment accounts for less than 10% of the company’s estimated value, conservatively between $10 and $12 Billion US Dollars.” reads the email sent to Joshuatree.
SpaceX will list on the NYSE, while Tesla is listed on the NASDAQ. Tesla’s IPO in 2010 went for $17 per share and raised over $226M. Tesla has since raised several billion dollars from the public markets since, including $1.4B in March this year, and continues to see strong demand from investors.
Musk stated in 2015 that a SpaceX IPO would be unlikely in the future, stating, “It will go public once we have regular flights to Mars.” Since then, Musk has seen incredible success in the public markets. Tesla continues to set record highs and currently worth over $51B, becoming one of the largest automakers in the world. Additionally, the overall conditions in the market are at near all-time highs – a prime condition for a SpaceX IPO.
SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk and has since risen to become a multi-billion dollar company with over 5,000 employees. The company has completed dozens of flights over the past couple of years and landed several lucrative contracts with NASA, The Department of Defense, SES, and Iridium. Outside of SpaceX’s current operations, Musk has even larger plans for the company. Musk revealed in June 2016 that SpaceX intends to build a rocket capable of reaching Mars and transporting large masses of people. Called, Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), SpaceX is looking to build a 40-story tall re-useable rocket capable of carrying hundreds of people to the red planet. The company has lofty goals to start testing the ITS rocket after 2020 but requires significant funding for the program. At its inception, Elon Musk injected roughly $100M in capital into the company.
We’ve provided a copy of the original e-mail tipped off to Teslarati and reportedly sent by Empire Capital Partners to its clients.
We are currently positioning the bulk of our clients into ‘Tesla Motors Inc.’ a company trading on the NASDAQ in New York under the trading symbol ‘TSLA.’ The company has an ancillary company preparing for a formal listing in the New York Stock Exchange, as an IPO (Initial Public Offering) called SPACE X. The reason we are putting all our preferred clients into TESLA; is what we know. Not only is TESLA going to show solid gains in the short term – yielding clients anywhere upwards of 20%. We have insight that the SPACE X IPO will be the most lucrative, and sought after IPO of 2017! Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal, and CEO of Tesla, Solar City and Space X has announced – the existing shareholders of Tesla will have exclusive option to buy into the Initial Public Offering of Space X as soon as they are released. Elon Musk likes to take care of his own. We have bought an institutional position in TESLA and are using the shares that we have acquired to bring new clients on board at a discount, in order to show them how Empire Capital Partners can deliver in 2017. Our goal is simple. We want to show you the power of information and get you involved in the Space X IPO. The minimum investment into TESLA is $10,000.00 USD and that would allow you to take advantage of the Initial Public Offering of SPACE X once it is announced. You can find additional information about TESLA at http://www.tesla.com
Empire Capital Partners has, with SpaceX, a 10 year history of substantial financial investment. We have spent the last 18 months in analytical research having crossed all the T’s and dotted all the I’s.
Empire Capital Partners is proud to present to you, the fantastic opportunity, in which you are able to take full advantage by getting involved at the ground level. This is sure to be the biggest pre-IPO opportunity of 2017, maybe even the decade. SpaceX is the brainchild of Elon Musk, a highly undervalued company founded in 2002. SpaceX raised $1 billion from Google Inc. and Fidelity Ventures in January 2015. This investment accounts for less than 10% of the company’s estimated value, conservatively between $10 and $12 Billion US Dollars.
Although SpaceX is known by the general public for its work on reusable rockets, the well-known giant Google has other interests Google’s interest peaked with Musk’s recent announcement when he outlined a plan for a global communications system that would use satellites to beam low-cost internet around the world.
Elon exclaimed, “Larger than anything that has been talked about to date,” He added, “at least five years and $15 billion to build and will implement 700 tiny satellites 750 miles above the Earth.” Google has long had similar ambitions itself by spreading internet around the world, including to remote regions. Google would then boost the number of people who have access to its services and of course all the extra revenue that comes with it! SpaceX points out that two thirds of the world have no access at all. It’s why we’re so focused on new technologies. New technologies that have the potential to bring hundreds of millions more people online in the coming years.”
Facebook and Google have already been working with balloons and drones trying to figure out how to spread Internet access. The internet space race is on! With Google heavily investing such large amounts into SpaceX, TALK ABOUT A WINNING COMBINATION! GOOGLE AND ELON MUSK! Now might be the time to sell those Facebook shares and back SpaceX by investing into the only clear winner of that race.
Even combining Google and SpaceX’s achievements and technologies, there are still a lot of big questions and challenges around how Musk’s satellite vision will work. Another big challenge would be installing ground-based antennas and computer terminals to receive the satellite signals. One thing that you can count on, the sure fire bet!
IF ELON MUSK PUTS HIS MIND AND MONEY INTO IT. IT WILL HAPPEN!
Fidelity invested in SpaceX in January 2015, putting up $16.75 million to join Google in a $1Billion investment. Fidelity now values its SpaceX stake at $19.25 million, a 15% increase. SpaceX said the two new additional investors owned just under 10% of the company. Google put the vast majority of cash into SpaceX’s billion-dollar financing round — $900 million for a 7.5% stake in the company. That implies SpaceX’s new valuation is $12 billion and puts the company ahead of companies like Dropbox, Snapchat and Airbnb, but behind Xiaomi, Uber and Palantir.
As a private company, SpaceX’s financials are fairly opaque, it has booked as much as $7 billion in future revenue from 60 commercial launch bookings over the next several years, and last year won a $2.6 billion contract to build the Dragon 2 and transport astronauts to the International Space Station. It also is bidding for a second contract to ferry cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), which is expected to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
SpaceX now ranks fourth on The Wall Street Journal’s list of billion-dollar private companies, securing an easy $12 Billion valuation.
SpaceX’s value exceeds that of rivals. United Launch Alliance, a key SpaceX competitor in the US, is reportedly the subject of a $2 billion takeover bid by the space firm Aerojet. But ULA has older technology and less commercial business than SpaceX. Arianespace, the European private launch contractor, was valued between $340 and $640 million as France prepared to sell its stake in the firm this summer, but it does not manufacture its own rockets.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
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