Lifted word for word from the Saul’s board over on that other Motley Fool site (a board generally known for its relentless optimism…)

Before you even think of investing in the SpaceX IPO (or open market stock purchase post IPO), please read the S1 very carefully. It is a remarkable document. A few things I picked up is that you can only purchase class A stock which provides you with 1 vote for corporate matters. You need never bother casting a vote because it has no value. Elon Musk will possess class B stock with 10 votes per share insuring that his whims can never be outvoted. No biggie? Who votes their shares anyway?

There’s more, lots more. SpaceX comes to market deeply in debt. Space X is burning money faster than the one profitable part of the company (Star Link) can generate profit. Every other aspect of the company is completely dependent on a lot of science fiction becoming reality (including recruiting one million people who actually want to colonize mars).

There’s other things like locating mineral rich asteroids and mining them and returning the refined products to earth at a profit. Or building an AI factory in space (“free” energy) and leasing compute to X-AIs chief competitors (Anthropic and Open AI). Selling (or renting SaaS style - I’m not sure) an AI code generator that X-AI’s engineers refuse to use because of its inferior functionality.

A lot of very questionable financial transactions. For example, SpaceX purchase hundreds of Tesla pickup trucks (because no one else was buying them) at full price, no volume discount. BTW, the number of trucks purchased by SpaceX exceeds the number of trucks reportedly sold to SpaceX by Tesla by close to 100 units. One of the board members has loaned SpaceX million of $$. Might he act in his best interest rather than the general stockholder’s? Oh, by the way, as noted above, Musk has sole authority to select the board members (remember that voting thing?).

There’s also a class C stock to which Musk will be entitled to gobs of shares should certain events transpire. Not to worry, it clearly says in the document that these events are unlikely to ever occur. The effect of that clause is such that if they were likely to come to pass, the full value would have to be expensed immediately upon going public. But, in that these events are declared as unlikely, they won’t have to be accounted for until they actually occur. So, what’s the point? Musk can still borrow against those shares as if they were real, tradeable stock.

No stockholder action can ever take legal action against SpaceX or Elon Musk personally - incorporation in Texas rather than Delaware has made virtually impossible to sue the company as a shareholder.

Those are just some highlights . . . there’s more.