The landing on the stock exchange of the aerospace company owned by the South African multi-billionaire, although configuring a financial operation of gigantic scope, will have positive and negative repercussions on the performance of the automotive company, also in his portfolio
Elon Musk he is the first “trillionaire” (in the American sense) in history, that is, he holds assets exceeding 1,000 billion dollars. But what made him so stratospherically rich is not Tesla, his creation that first gave him popularity: it is the IPO, the initial public offering (with which a private company sells its shares on the stock exchange for the first time, transforming itself into a listed company) of SpaceX, the aerospace company that Musk himself founded in 2002 with the dream of colonizing the universe and conquering Mars. After all, once again the markets have given him confidence: the only one BlackRockthe world’s largest investment firm managing trillions of dollars and led by Larry Fink, has ordered $5 billion in shares of SpaceXdespite the fact that the company controlled by Musk (he holds 85% of the shares with voting rights) has not yet demonstrated its profitability and enjoys a valuation of around 1,750 billion dollars based more on the prospects for artificial intelligence than on actual aerospace activities. But if this is Musk’s main interest today, what could happen to Tesla? Let’s try to consider the different aspects of the situation that was created with the SpaceX IPO.
the car in recovery
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2025 was not an easy year for Tesla, which saw itself overtaken in global sales of electric cars by the Chinese BYD. However, the first months of 2026 showed signs of recovery for Musk’s brand: between January and March production grew by 12.6% (reaching 408,390 units) and sales by 6.3% (to 358,023 units). Positive data, but analysts highlight an increase in stocks of cars not yet delivered, with a decline in sales in China and persistent weakness on the European market, where competition from Chinese brands is becoming more pressing. And even in the United States, where Tesla remains the leader among electric cars, the trend no longer reflects the growth curves of the past: after all, in the era of Donald Trump the entire world of electric mobility has recorded a setback. The IPO of SpaceX fits into this complex scenario with a series of possible consequences with dual aspects. On the one hand, in fact, Musk he is the CEO and main shareholder of both companies, SpaceX and Tesla, which also have financial ties between them: this means that a very positive listing of the former can also have positive repercussions on the value of the latter. But the most important aspect is perhaps another: the success of the aerospace company’s stock market listing demonstrates how intact Musk’s financial and entrepreneurial abilities are, despite the difficult period he went through for his entry into politics alongside Trump and the damage to his image that some of his statements and actions caused. In the imagination of investors, thanks to the IPO, Musk returns to being the entrepreneur of the past who created an empire from nothing with his genius, partially erasing the negativity that weighed on Tesla in the first period of Trump’s presidency, when many owners preferred to sell their car or, at least, distance themselves from its founder. Furthermore, future synergies between the two companies can be envisaged, for example in the field of robotaxis and artificial intelligence.
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there is no shortage of doubts
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However, there could also be negative repercussions for Tesla resulting from the IPO SpaceX. The first concerns the movement of capital: global financial resources, although huge, are not unlimited, so if they are diverted to the aerospace company they risk no longer fueling the automotive one. Who wants to become part of what some newspapers in the United States call “Muskonomy”, the economic system that revolves around Elon Musk can today make a different choice from that of Tesla, which was previously the only one possible, taking capital away from the automotive sector, reducing the value of Tesla shares, now with a lower appeal, and causing greater volatility. Some analysts, then, fear that the attention of managers and himself Muskwhose charisma as a leader is considered essential, may be distracted from Tesla and end up concentrating on SpaceX and Starlink, the satellite communications system which is also headed by Musk: a risk already feared in Elon’s “political” period. And this would happen at a time when the pressure of Chinese competition in the automotive sector is becoming increasingly stronger. Finally, the hypothesis of a possible merger between Tesla and SpaceX has been circulating for some time, at the end of which the former would constitute the weakest branch of the two companies, still controlled by Musk. The SpaceX IPO, although it constitutes a global financial success for the entrepreneur of South African origins, may therefore also have negative repercussions on his car company, perhaps more psychological than real: after all, Tesla’s stratospheric listing has always been based more on investors’ expectations and on the enormous trust placed in its leader by the markets than on actual results. And this constitutes, as well as a strong point, an element of possible fragility for future scenarios.
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