SpaceX warns investors Elon Musk could return to politics

There’s a new warning tucked into the tender offer for Elon Musk’s SpaceX: The billionaire may not be done with politics just yet.

Musk previously served as senior advisor to President Trump “in connection with the Department of Government Efficiency and may in the future serve in similar roles and devote significant time and energy to such roles,” according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg and people familiar with the content who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The company added the language laying out such “risk factors” in paperwork sent to investors discussing the transaction. It was the first time this language is believed to have appeared in these tender offers, some of these people said.

SpaceX’s most recent offer values the rocket and satellite maker at about $400 billion, which would make it the most valuable private company in the world.

Representatives for Musk and SpaceX didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Musk’s political shifts

Since formally leaving the Trump administration in late May after playing a substantial role in the president’s bid to slash the size of the U.S. government, Musk has waffled over how involved he’d like to remain.

In May, Musk vowed to return his focus to Tesla Inc., his artificial intelligence startup xAI and the rest of his business empire, and pull back his political spending. But after a spat with Trump exploded into the public eye, Musk went after the president and Republican members of Congress for passing a tax and spending package and, in July, vowed to form a new political party to vote members of Congress out of office.

A few weeks later, Musk said his attention had returned to his five companies. “Back to working 7 days a week and sleeping in the office if my little kids are away,” he said on his social media site, X, on Sunday.

But the warning included in SpaceX’s recent offering documents serves as a reminder to investors in any of Musk’s businesses that few things in the billionaire’s world — or in the Trump administration for that matter — are ever really final.

SpaceX is a key government contractor with both NASA and the U.S. military. Besides launching its Falcon rockets and work developing Starship, which is designed to take humans to Mars, SpaceX oversees a network of roughly 8,000 space-based satellites known as Starlink.

As part of SpaceX’s recent tender offer, certain shareholders will be allowed to sell stakes in the company — an increasingly popular option for startups that are staying private longer but want to give early employees and investors a chance to cash out.

SpaceX will buy back as much as $1.25 billion worth of shares from staff and other holders, Bloomberg reported.

Hull, Grush and Ludlow write for Bloomberg.