Elon Musk’s SpaceX is about to become a public company - and the move could impact Americans’ retirement accounts, some experts have warned.
Last month, SpaceX unveiled plans to publicly sell its stock for the first time. The company’s initial public offering, expected June 12, is on track to be the largest in history at a projected $1.75 trillion and could put Musk on a path to becoming the world’s first trillionaire.
Earlier this year, some of the major stock market indexes, including the Nasdaq where SpaceX will soon be available, changed their rules to allow high-value companies to join much quicker than normal after going public.
That’s where Americans’ retirement accounts come in. Retirement account managers typically will invest in so-called index funds. Basically, those funds spread out money across a market such as the Nasdaq, so individual investors will have small amounts in lots of companies and not need to worry about trading stocks day-to-day. That means that millions of Americans could see portions of their 401Ks or other retirement accounts invested in the aerospace company founded by the world’s richest person.
In light of the SpaceX IPO’s accelerated timeline, that causes concern among some tech and finance experts.
SpaceX, which is currently valued at $1.25 trillion, lost about $4.9 billion in 2025, and another $4.3 billion in the first three months of 2026, according to The New York Times. Typically, when companies aren’t earning money it's a bad sign for Wall Street and the stock will sell causing its price to go down.
A company’s stock prices also tend to be volatile immediately after a company goes public. The previous waiting periods, which were put in after the dot-com crash, helped protect investors against wild swings in a company or prove its profitability before being included in a small market such as the Nasdaq.
That could mean retirement account holders seeing losses if SpaceX faces either of these factors. While most individual investors would likely only have a small portion of their index fund invested in SpaceX, any loss would hurt their bottom line.
Corey McLaughlin, the editor of the Stansberry Digest, a daily investment research newsletter by the publishing firm Stansberry Research, warned that the effects will be felt widely.
“If you're like us, you're not planning to buy SpaceX shares in the [initial public offering]. But odds are, you'll end up owning SpaceX anyway... if you own any index funds. And even if you don't, you'll have indirect exposure because of all the other people who do. Their behavior will move the entire stock market,” McLaughlin wrote in the company’s newsletter last week.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, also wrote to the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, expressing concern about SpaceX’s “unsustainable valuation” and the potential impact on union members’ pensions and investments. The union represents 1.8 million workers and is among the largest in the country.
“That is why we are going to the SEC—there is nowhere else to turn. This is not just another [initial public offering]—it’s the largest in U.S. history, and it’s being rushed to market with a valuation that defies financial logic,” Weingarten said in a statement last month.
However other financial experts have said average Americans don’t need to be particularly concerned. Scott Richie, an investing expert at Stoculator, told Newsweek this SpaceX development is “neither a big positive nor a big danger” for most retirement account holders.
“You’ll own a little SpaceX the same way you already own a little of hundreds of companies you’ve never thought about,” Richie said.
“A small slice of any single company, up or down, won't make or break your retirement,” he added.
SpaceX stock is expected to be available on the Nasdaq beginning June 12, under the ticker “SPCX,” according to Reuters. The company, which was founded in 2002 by Musk, designs, builds and launches rockets and spacecraft. In 2020, it became the first private company to take humans to the International Space Station.
The Independent has contacted SpaceX for comment.
