CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX’s Friday IPO – the largest in stock market history – will benefit more than Elon Musk, now considered the world’s first trillionaire.
The billions of dollars raised the moment the stock offering hit the market is expected to fuel a surge of investment and development in new private space companies, many of which will have a presence in Orlando and Brevard County.
UCF College of Business Professor Dr. Zaheer Ali, who leads the space commercialization program, equated the offering to Columbus crossing the Atlantic, which set off a new era of exploration and investment in transatlantic trade in the following decades.
This time, humans will be eyeing the moon, Mars and the asteroid belt.
“Who’s going to do the impossible next?” Ali asked, saying the focus would shift from getting to space to doing things in space. “Now, they have the money to do it. That’s what this IPO represents.”
Ali credited SpaceX with making the journey to space achievable for so many others. Since the company came online, he said costs for transporting satellites and other equipment up into orbit has fallen by 90%, thanks largely in part to the innovations in management, manufacturing and logistics that SpaceX has solved over the years.
Titusville Mayor Andrew Connors said his city would benefit from additional jobs opening up and down the supply chain.
“When we are just launch, that always put us that vulnerable economically, so developing that whole supply chain from manufacturing to assembly to launch is really what’s going to set us apart in the future,” Connors said. “With 400 employees at SpaceX that live in the city of Titusville, this is game changing.”
It’s not clear how many SpaceX employees based in Florida amassed enough stock to become a millionaire off the IPO. While Dr. Ali said SpaceX’s valuation is mostly based off people’s faith in Musk and the opportunity space presents for advanced manufacturing, some analysts believe the company is significantly overvalued, which could cost people some of their new fortunes.
Dr. Ali said he isn’t worried about the risk.
“The space economy is not going anywhere. It is the future of humanity,” he said. “I’m trying to emphasize to my students that the time of proving that we can go and be is past. It’s now time to do and to create.”
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