Forget ‘TechnoKing’: Elon Musk will really be king at SpaceX Sean O'Kane 12:35 PM PDT · May 21, 2026 Elon Musk has incredible sway over the companies he leads. And while he already calls himself “TechnoKing” at Tesla, he is a real ruler over SpaceX, wielding an unprecedented level of control over one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Musk’s monarchical grip on SpaceX was finally laid bare in the company’s IPO filing made public on Wednesday .
Post-IPO, Musk will be CEO, CTO, and chairman of SpaceX’s board, and will have more than 50% of the voting power, giving him the ability to appoint directors as he sees fit. He essentially cannot be fired.
The company has placed limits on how shareholders can file legal challenges, and it will benefit from a far more permissive regulatory regime in Texas, its home state – an environment Musk helped create when he loudly moved Tesla’s incorporation there from Delaware.
As SpaceX bluntly tells prospective investors in the filing: “This will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters and the election of our directors.”
Tech founders have enjoyed increased control over public companies over the last two decades, especially as Google, Meta (then Facebook) and other tech firms went public with dual-class shares.
But Musk and SpaceX are taking things much further, according to Ann Lipton, professor of law at the University of Colorado.
Lipton argued, in a blog published last Friday, that Musk is obliterating the three most powerful levers that shareholders can typically pull to pressure a public company’s top executive.
The first is voting. SpaceX uses a dual-class structure, with Musk holding 93.6% of the Class B super-voting shares that won’t be available to the public in the offering.
Despite aiming to become the largest IPO in history, Musk will still hold more than 50% of the voting power once SpaceX lists. That makes it a “controlled company” by stock exchange standards, and controlled companies are allowed to exempt themselves from rules requiring independent oversight.
SpaceX states in its IPO filing that regular shareholderss (who will own Class A shares) “will not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq.”
Crucially, Musk’s voting control means he will be able to decide anything requiring shareholder approval. That includes decisions such as mergers and acquisitions. If Musk eventually wants to somehow merge with or acquire Tesla, as many people have speculated, he won’t need to convince SpaceX shareholders.
Voting control is the biggest difference between Musk’s power at SpaceX versus Tesla. Musk only has around 20% voting control at Tesla and has had to put tremendous pressure on the company in recent years – including, at one point, threatening to leave altogether – to be granted more stock. (Tesla obliged last year by concocting a $1 trillion compensation package approved by shareholders.)
The second lever SpaceX is curtailing is the ability to sue.
By incorporating in Texas, SpaceX has ensured shareholders can’t file what’s known as a “derivative suit” unless they own at least 3% of the company’s shares. (At the expected $1.75 trillion valuation, that would amount to a position worth roughly $52 billion.)
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