SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, one of the Elon Musk-led space company's earliest employees, shared her thoughts on pricing and the company's future during an interview on IPO day Friday.
The SpaceX IPO
Shotwell addressed the decision to price shares at $135, even with heavy demand from both institutional and retail investors ahead of the listing.
"Not everything has to get done the first day," she told CNBC.
She said SpaceX has a long runway of opportunities ahead, pointing to Starship, Starlink, and Grok as major areas of focus.
"We're really looking for investors who want to stick with us for the long term."
Shotwell added that Elon Musk wanted everyday people to have access to the IPO, with roughly 33% of shares reportedly allocated to retail investors.
While Musk has emphasized retail participation, Shotwell noted he also spent recent weeks meeting with institutional investors.
After 24 years working alongside Musk at SpaceX, Shotwell said he remains "very misunderstood across the board."
"I love him," she added.
SpaceX Opportunity
Shotwell was asked about the recent deals signed with Anthropic and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) and if SpaceX should be considered among the Neocloud companies.
"100%. We are builders," Shotwell said, adding the company is building data centers on the ground and in space.
"I look at us as an infrastructure company."
Shotwell brushed off concerns about future risks: "I don't think there's anything sitting in front of us that I'm super worried about."
Asked about the $28.5 trillion total addressable market in SpaceX's prospectus, Shotwell said that AI usage alone doesn't reach that figure — but adding robots and globally deployed full self‑driving vehicles gets you there.
"They all need AI and compute."
Addressing threats from countries such as Iran, Shotwell said the company always aims to do the right thing and won't shy away from signing U.S. government contracts.
"We're always going to support our government. We're a company of patriots."
Shotwell said SpaceX wants to make sure that the government has access to leading technology and the "best stuff."
Photo: bella1105 / Shutterstock.com
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