SpaceX, the U.S. aerospace company set to launch its initial public offering (IPO) next month, has decided to grant Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk dual-class shares carrying 10 times the voting power of common stock. Under the structure, Class B shares — each carrying 10 votes — will be allocated to a small group of insiders, including CEO Musk. Through this arrangement, Musk will secure 85.1% of total voting rights. The decision can be seen as a move to establish firm management leadership at SpaceX and pursue preemptive investments with a 10-to-20-year horizon.
Dual-class share structures have already become commonplace in major economies abroad. U.S. Big Tech founders — including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet's Larry Page and Sergey Brin — have used such arrangements to consolidate internal leadership and execute large-scale investments in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI). Flagship companies in major European countries, such as Sweden's Wallenberg Group and the Netherlands' Heineken, also operate forms of dual-class voting. Even the Chinese government has allowed multiple-class voting rights for high-tech firms, supporting the strengthened management control of companies such as Alibaba and Xiaomi.
The Korean government has been actively emphasizing the fostering of new growth industries such as AI, semiconductors and robotics. On the legislative front, however, the reality is that regulations restricting corporate management rights are instead proliferating. Examples include the revised Commercial Act, which expanded the scope of directors' fiduciary duty to shareholders, and the so-called Yellow Envelope Act, which classifies management decisions on business operations as subject to labor disputes if they affect working conditions. Under such conditions, the birth of a Korean SpaceX remains a distant prospect.
It is now time for Korea, too, to expedite legislation that can strengthen corporations' ability to defend their management rights. In particular, the introduction of dual-class shares and poison pills (preemptive rights to issue new shares) — measures to counter activist funds and hostile mergers and acquisitions (M&A) — is urgently needed. Abolishing the breach-of-trust crime, which has trapped management in fear of lawsuits, is also a pressing task. Excessive labor regulations and practices must be boldly reformed to create conditions in which Korean industry can invest with a 10-to-20-year outlook. For the National Growth Fund, launched on the 22nd as a key policy initiative of President Lee Jae-myung, to serve as seed capital for the AI and semiconductor industries, an institutional foundation must be in place that allows management of recipient companies to boldly pioneer new businesses.
