Elon Musk Has a Strange Requirement for Banks Working on SpaceX’s IPO
If banks want a piece of one of the largest IPOs in history, they have to buy subscriptions to Grok, his controversial AI chatbot.
In normal circumstances, banks pitch for IPO business with expertise and competitive fees. But SpaceX isn’t a normal circumstance, and Elon Musk doesn’t do things in a normal way. The future trillionaire is demanding that banks, law firms, and auditors working on the IPO purchase Grok subscriptions, and some banks have already agreed to spend tens of millions.
The stakes are massive. SpaceX’s IPO is expected to raise over $50 billion at a valuation above $1 trillion, generating more than $500 million in fees for the five banks advising: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
The move is a big win for Grok, which ranks fourth in the AI race behind ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s Gemini. The chatbot has also been mired in controversy after sharing antisemitic content and generating nonconsensual sexualized images, leading countries like Indonesia and Malaysia to ban it.
In normal circumstances, banks pitch for IPO business with expertise and competitive fees. But SpaceX isn’t a normal circumstance, and Elon Musk doesn’t do things in a normal way. The future trillionaire is demanding that banks, law firms, and auditors working on the IPO purchase Grok subscriptions, and some banks have already agreed to spend tens of millions.
The stakes are massive. SpaceX’s IPO is expected to raise over $50 billion at a valuation above $1 trillion, generating more than $500 million in fees for the five banks advising: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
The move is a big win for Grok, which ranks fourth in the AI race behind ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s Gemini. The chatbot has also been mired in controversy after sharing antisemitic content and generating nonconsensual sexualized images, leading countries like Indonesia and Malaysia to ban it.
