Elon Musk’s leadership style has always been one to watch, but with the recent initial public offering (IPO) of SpaceX, his grip on the company—and its future—has come under a sharper spotlight than ever. On June 12, 2026, SpaceX, the trailblazing space exploration and artificial intelligence company, made its much-anticipated debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The IPO raised a staggering $75 billion, nearly three times more than any company has ever brought in from a public offering, according to Investor’s Business Daily. Shares soared 22 percent on the first day, closing at $164.80, and the company’s valuation rocketed to an eye-popping $1.75 trillion. Yet, behind these dazzling numbers lies a story as much about power and culture as it is about rockets and returns.
Elon Musk, who owns 46% of SpaceX, maintains an even tighter hold over the company’s direction through a governance structure that is, by many accounts, “novel and extreme.” As reported by S&P and Investor’s Business Daily, the rest of SpaceX’s ownership is scattered among a diffuse group of investors, including Chicago-based venture capital firm Valor Management and the well-known Fidelity Investments. But when it comes to actual control, Musk’s dominance is nearly absolute: he holds 85.1% of the voting power, and the board is stacked with his longtime allies. The only way Musk can be removed as CEO is if he votes to fire himself—a scenario that seems about as likely as a rocket flying to Mars on its first try.
This concentration of authority has not gone unnoticed. Some skeptical investors, including the nation’s largest public pension funds, pressed Musk to loosen his control ahead of the IPO. Their calls were ignored. As Rob Lalka, a business professor at Tulane University and author of The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power, put it to Wired, “If you believe in free and fair markets, the will of the people should matter. The concentration of power is saying they know better than public markets.”
Yet, for many inside SpaceX, this is simply business as usual. The company’s culture is built on what employees and leaders call “extreme ownership”—a philosophy that gives workers not just responsibility, but also autonomy and accountability from day one. Brian Manning, who joined SpaceX as an engineer a decade ago, recalls his first day vividly: “The way I looked at it is having very clear responsibility, autonomy, and accountability,” he told Wired. He was given a task to design a small part by the next day, with little hand-holding. “Rather than hiring people and telling them how to do it, they give people full ownership to make things happen.”
That approach has paid off in spades. SpaceX has not only become the world’s leading satellite internet provider but has also achieved feats once thought impossible—like reusing key parts of its rockets. The company now employs over 22,000 people, a far cry from its humble beginnings in a Los Angeles-area warehouse in 2002. “At SpaceX, you really own a product cradle to grave,” said a former employee who joined in 2009. “I knew if software didn’t work, it was my own damn fault. It’s letting experts make expert decisions for good or for worse, and it worked out most of the time.”
This ethos is not just lip service. Laura Crabtree, one of SpaceX’s early hires and now CEO of Epsilon3, said, “They are given big responsibilities and shoes to fill, and that’s why people want to flock to a place like SpaceX. You don’t have to gain trust. You’re given trust and a chance to prove it.” Even current job postings emphasize the need for new hires to “demonstrate extreme ownership … from concept to delivery.” Tom Mueller, SpaceX’s first employee and now CEO of the spacecraft developer Impulse, explained, “Responsible engineers own their failures and work with the people they need to work with to find solutions.”
But the company’s governance structure means that, ultimately, Musk makes the big decisions and course-corrects when necessary. “That’s always how the company’s been run,” Crabtree observed. “And he wants to keep it that way after going public.”
SpaceX’s ambitions are as grand as its governance is centralized. The company’s long-term mission includes building data centers in space and establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars. That vision, however, comes with enormous challenges. The recent acquisition of Musk’s money-losing AI research lab xAI has rendered SpaceX unprofitable for now. And while the company has made history with reusable rockets, it still needs to develop a more powerful vehicle to reach Mars—a goal that remains tantalizingly out of reach. There’s also the specter of increased competition and stricter government regulation looming on the horizon.
Amid these headwinds, Musk’s power is also visible in the physical world. Nowhere is this clearer than in Starbase, Texas—a city built and controlled by SpaceX at the southern tip of the United States. As reported by The New York Times, Starbase is a private enclave with amenities ranging from a school and medical center to a sushi bar and high-end dog park. But it’s not for everyone. The city is encircled by electronic gates and patrolled by armed guards, with nearly every communal space marked as private property. Locals describe a secretive environment, overseen by a company-affiliated city commission that “rubber-stamps” Musk’s vision. Even kindergartners, it’s said, are guided by his philosophies.
Starbase is more than just a company town—it’s a beta test for a new kind of oligarchy, one that seems poised to transform not just the space industry but the very fabric of American society. And with the windfall from the IPO, more such spaceport cities may soon dot the landscape. On May 12, Musk announced on social media that “SpaceX is considering several locations domestically and internationally to build the world’s most advanced spaceports!” Reports have already surfaced of a large parcel of land in coastal Louisiana possibly acquired by an anonymous aerospace company, widely rumored to be SpaceX.
This expansion, fueled by record-breaking capital, is underpinned by the same “extreme ownership” philosophy that has powered SpaceX’s meteoric rise. Dozens of former SpaceX employees have gone on to found their own startups, spreading the culture of responsibility and ambition far beyond the company’s walls. Manning, now CEO of satellite company Xona Space Systems, summed it up: “We’re hiring smart people so they can tell us how it should be done and have accountability.”
As SpaceX looks to the future—whether it’s launching new rockets, building cities, or charting a course to Mars—one thing is clear: the company’s fate, for better or worse, remains firmly in the hands of Elon Musk. And if anything trips up SpaceX, extreme ownership means Musk will likely only have himself to blame.
With the IPO now in the rearview mirror and billions in fresh capital at the ready, all eyes are on Musk, SpaceX, and the bold experiment in ownership, governance, and ambition taking shape both on Earth and beyond.