According to reports from the Financial Times and Reuters, SpaceX is about to undergo an unprecedented IPO. Musk plans to reserve up to 25% to 30% of the shares in the $75 billion issuance for retail investors.

It's important to note that in large-scale US IPOs, retail investors usually only get 5% to 10% of the "leftovers." Musk's move is tantamount to overturning old rules at the Wall Street table.

This is not just a benefit for fans, but also treating retail investors as the "main force" supporting trillion-yuan valuations.

| An unprecedented "retail investor feast": five major brokerages join the stage

SpaceX's retail investor placement arrangement broke conventions in multiple aspects. In its prospectus, the company directly named five online brokers: SoFi, Robinhood, E*Trade, Schwab, and Fidelity, and even launched an IPO website to guide retail investors to subscribe.

To guard against risks, SpaceX also clearly warned in its prospectus: large-scale retail investor participation could trigger sharp stock price fluctuations.

However, in terms of scale, these five digital brokers collectively manage over $10 trillion in client assets, and absorbing tens of billions of dollars worth of SpaceX stock is within a controllable range.

| Musk's "retail investor philosophy": Tesla's successful model

Musk's preference for retail investors has a long history. As early as 2020, he promised that SpaceX's IPO would give retail investors "the highest priority." At Tesla's earnings call, he was the only major tech company CEO to prioritize answering retail investors' questions.

This strategy has already been proven with Tesla. Currently, retail investors hold about 42% of Tesla's outstanding shares, far exceeding Apple's 34%. It is precisely the continuous buying by retail investors that has supported Tesla's price-to-earnings ratio as high as 382 times.

Now, with 240 million X platform fans, Musk is trying to turn SpaceX into the next "retail investor base."

| Wall Street's "Ice and Fire": Institutional Doubts and Retail Investor Frenzy

This unusual move sparked a starkly different reaction on Wall Street. Some institutional investors believe Musk relies too heavily on personal fans to support the issuance, even feeling retail investors are being treated as "buyers."

Interestingly, despite their doubts, many hedge fund managers still plan to buy SpaceX stock. Their calculations were very clever: subscribe first, then wait until the stock is included in the main index, then take profits from passive capital buying.

Meanwhile, retail investors' emotions are wildly swinging on forums like Reddit: both afraid of becoming insiders cashing out as "buyers," and extremely afraid of missing out on this once-in-a-lifetime wealth feast. As an executive at Citadel Securities said: "Retail traders have become the new pricers in the market." ”

| Retail investors reshape IPO pricing power

SpaceX's move marks a shift in the role of retail investors in the IPO from "symbolic participation" to "core pricers." In the future, companies with large fan bases and community consensus will greatly enhance their bargaining power in the capital market.

Institutional investors' strategies indicate that large IPOs often see concentrated buying of passive funds in the early stages of listing and around inclusion in core indices. This provides a clear window period for both short-term and medium-term trading.

The risk warnings in the prospectus are not baseless. A high proportion of retail investors means the stock price is more susceptible to social media sentiment and short-term capital flows, with initial IPO volatility significantly higher than that of traditional institution-led IPOs.

Kingtech Perspective | Focus on "New Quality Productivity" targets

As SpaceX's designated distribution channel, brokerages like Robinhood and SoFi will directly benefit from the trading commissions and capital accumulation brought by the retail investor buying boom. The monetization ability of these platforms in the "retail economy" era deserves long-term attention.

SpaceX's case proves that companies with hardcore tech capabilities and massive fan bases can overcome the valuation limitations of traditional cycles. Investors can pay attention to leading companies in fields like AI and new energy that possess a similar "Musk effect."

This IPO is turning the traditional "institutional game" into a "nationwide ticket grabbing" event. Musk is betting that retail investors are not only willing to believe the stories of Rocket and Starlink but also willing to use real money to support a trillion-dollar valuation. For ordinary investors, maintaining a sense of respect for fundamentals while participating in this feast may be more important than blindly following trends.