Posted June 12, 2026
SpaceX will launch the largest public offering in history today, valuing the company at $1.77 trillion. The company’s founder, Elon Musk, owns roughly half of its stock, which would put his personal net worth at more than $1 trillion when combined with his stakes in Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and other ventures.
While Musk was already the richest man in the world, he is now set to become wealthier than the next four richest people combined. That kind of wealth is difficult to fathom, but these figures might help make the point:
And if you’re still having trouble appreciating just how large $1 trillion is, perhaps the best way to convey its magnitude is to think of it in terms of time. One million seconds is equal to roughly 11.5 days. By comparison, 1 billion seconds amounts to 31 years and 8 months, while 1 trillion seconds equals 31,688 years.
It’s important to note, though, that Musk is not the only one whose life will change today.
SpaceX routinely granted stock options to its employees, regardless of what they did on campus. As a result, the public offering is projected to create more than 4,000 new millionaires, from engineers all the way to cafeteria workers.
Unfortunately, those in the private sector are not the only ones who seem to want a piece of what SpaceX—and AI companies more generally—have to offer.
In a recent article for the Tangle, Will Kaback outlined how both Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and President Trump have become fixated on the idea that the government needs to have a financial stake in the nation’s largest purveyors of artificial intelligence. And while they come at it from different angles, there’s a surprising number of similarities between their plans.
To start, Sanders recently announced that he will present the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act to Congress in the near future. The bill calls for the government to acquire a 50 percent ownership stake in AI companies, which would be placed in a sovereign wealth fund he envisions using to pay for health care, education, and housing, among other priorities. Sanders believes that the American people are entitled to that stake because AI companies were trained on “the accumulated knowledge, creativity, and labor of mankind.”
By contrast, President Trump suggests that the government should pursue a stake in AI companies but forgo any direct control over their decision-making. His administration has pursued similar deals with Intel, quantum-computing firms, and rare-earth mineral companies, and he seems to feel that the artificial intelligence industry is the next logical step.
What’s perhaps most surprising, though, is that many of the leading AI innovators are on board with the idea.
OpenAI, for example, proposed in April that the government could use sovereign wealth funds to get an ownership stake in the company in return for updating the energy grid, while providing guidance on workers’ rights and other controversial elements of the technology. Anthropic has shown similar openness to the idea, while Musk has talked about using AI profits to provide a measure of universal basic income for Americans.
But while it’s certainly possible that these leaders in artificial intelligence could welcome government intervention and reduced profits out of the goodness of their hearts, it seems logical to assume they could have something else in mind as well.
Concerns have persisted for some time that the AI industry has grown so fast and so large that it bears some rather troubling resemblances to the dot.com boom in the early 2000s or the real estate market circa 2008. And while there are some notable differences as well, the basic truth is that most of these companies have not proven to be nearly as profitable as their investors believe they will be.
As Conner and Micah discussed on this week’s Culture Brief, SpaceX is a prime example of this discrepancy between perceived value and what they’ve delivered so far.
The newly minted $1.7 trillion company only made $18 billion in revenue last year. And that mark was far better than the year before, when it lost almost $5 billion.
Ultimately, the bet on SpaceX is really just a bet on Elon Musk and his ability to make good on innovations like data centers in space, factories on the moon, and people on Mars. Given that the current technology cannot support any of that, though, it’s understandable why some are a bit nervous about throwing their money and trust in his direction.
However, the threat of a bubble popping and ruining the lives—and fortunes—of those leading these companies could be mitigated if the government were at risk as well.
In many ways, I suspect that the “too big to fail” model is what’s most appealing to these companies about a potential partnership with the government. On some level, they have to know that they’re a risky bet long term, and the odds of all of them succeeding seem slim. If they can get the government involved—particularly if it comes without having to give up anything more than revenue—then they’re essentially buying insurance against the possibility of collapse.
The problem is that it’s the American people who would have to underwrite that policy. And there’s a lesson in that fact that goes well beyond investments and AI.
Toward the end of his ministry, Jesus spoke to the “great crowds” who were following him and urged them to “count the cost” before deciding whether they were truly ready to be his disciples (Luke 14:25–33). Christ understood the risks they would be taking and knew that, unless they decided in the times of peace and comfort to follow him, they would fall away once the price rose beyond what they were willing to pay.
The hard part, though, is that we cannot know what that cost will ultimately be.
For some who heard Jesus that day, genuine discipleship cost them their lives. For others, it may have been little more than an inconvenience. None of those who heard Jesus could know for sure, though, which is why he demanded so much of them.
Most of us are blessed to live in a place where following Jesus is not likely to cost us our lives. But the same basic principle still applies. If we’ve given God anything but a blank check to use us in whatever ways are best for his kingdom and for the spread of the gospel, then we’re doing discipleship wrong.
So, as we finish for today, take a few moments to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show you any areas you’ve deemed off limits should Christ ask it of you. When you’re done, surrender those areas to the Lord.
And if the prayer feels forced or fake at first, that’s alright. It’s hard to surrender everything to Jesus; he knew it would be. But it’s also worth it, and it often seems like the most difficult parts of your life to fully turn over to him are where he can use you the most.
“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.” — Oswald Chambers
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