A single new sentence in SpaceX’s amended IPO filing could signal the biggest merger in history

On June 1, Space X issued an amended registration statement for its upcoming IPO that contains a couple of noteworthy additions to the original filing submitted two weeks earlier. In one new provision, the rocket and AI giant announced that it will reserve 5% of the offering’s shares for “certain employees and persons… which may include parties with whom we have business relationships and friends and families of our executive officers.” The document adds that these grants “will not be subject to a lockup restriction.” In other words, the folks who receive these allocations, unlike Elon Musk and top execs who can’t sell for around a year, are free to unload their holdings any time after SpaceX’s debut, slated for mid-June. These recipients could pocket gigantic windfalls overnight. It’s now widely reported that in the IPO, SpaceX will issue 555.6 million shares at $135 each to raise roughly $75 billion. So it’s handing friends and family the right to buy $3.75 billion in shares (5% of $75 billion) at the insider price paid by investors, primarily anointed big institutions, that purchased in the underwriting phase. How much the executives and friends and family folks pocket right away depends on how much SpaceX’s stock pops on day one. Of course, we don’t know what will happen to SpaceX shares once the bell rings at the Nasdaq. A substantial rise over the pre-trading price would send the valuation into the stratospheric $2 trillion range or higher. But IPO jumps typically average around 20%, and a strong pop is highly valued by both issuers and book-running bankers as the hallmark of the deal’s success. If SpaceX scores a 20% bump, the group would reap an immediate gain of $750 million. At 30%, we’re talking $1.125 billion. And once again, they’re free to exit at any time. An extra surprise buried in the amended S-1 could provide a pivotal clue for SpaceX’s future plans. It&