As SpaceX's listing, considered this year's biggest global initial public offering (IPO), is taking shape for June, opposition from US environmental groups is growing louder. Some environmental organizations are urging state governments to avoid investing in SpaceX, deepening the dilemma for public pension funds.
According to Reuters on Thursday, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, a US environmental group, said it plans to stage a protest on Friday in front of the main gate of SpaceX's Starbase launch facility. The same day marks the start of a three-day tour and meeting SpaceX is hosting for Wall Street equity analysts.
Network co-founder Bekah Hinojosa said the group is "urging investors to boycott (SpaceX's) IPO and lobbying New York City Comptroller Mark Levine to exclude SpaceX from the city's pension plan investments." Hinojosa, who lives in Brownsville near Starbase, said, "It's not pleasant to feel like you're being bombed by Elon Musk," adding that "flames shooting from the rockets could spark fires in the dry South Texas region." In 2023, a launch explosion sent concrete dust flying as far as nearby small towns.
Reuters described the case as illustrating the dilemma facing potential IPO shareholders. Public pension funds in Democratic-leaning states, in particular, have long used environmental considerations as one of their investment criteria. Some of these funds receive state government capital. Still, Reuters observed that some of these funds are likely to invest in SpaceX nonetheless. They could participate in the IPO drawn by its strong profitability, or they could end up investing inadvertently if SpaceX is included in indexes they already track.
Bloomberg noted that beyond environmental issues, SpaceX's IPO also faces challenges related to profitability and the maturity of its technology. "Musk has a unique ability to make public market investors focus on the future and tune out skepticism," Bloomberg said, adding, "In the past, Musk was a singular figure in this space, but this time there are several people selling a utopian artificial intelligence (AI) future. OpenAI and Anthropic are also rushing to go public, with valuations expected to be similar to SpaceX, and both companies are generating far larger revenues."
